Going to the Airport
Okay now. Because of the “Taxi From The Airport” series, many of you have been asking about the “going to the airport”! So here’s my take on that:
From almost anywhere in the country, going to the airport by cab, bus, jeep, tricycle or any other means is pretty straightforward. Meaning you just hop into the airport at least an hour before departure. In fact, at times (at smaller airports) it can even be as tight as 30 minutes before the published departure time and you’ll still catch that flight!
But let us cover the Metro Manila Airports as they are the most complicated – aside from chaotic!
So where are you coming from? Caloocan? Makati? Pasig? Las Pinas? Bulacan? There are a lot of options depending on where you might be coming from. However, what many passengers do not realize or consider is the time of their flight’s departure as against the departure of other flights. And this is the single most important consideration. Let’s discuss that!
My flight, their flight!
In deciding as to what time you should start heading for the airport, consider the departure time of your flight and that of all other flights. That might sound ridiculous but, just the same, do it. It is very important! You want to know or at least have an estimate as to how many other people will be competing with you to be able to enter those godforsaken entrances to your airport of departure.
Examples: at the domestic wing of the Centennial Airport, any day there will be at the very least 8 PAL flights scheduled to depart between 5AM and 6AM with two of them using bigger airbus crafts of up to 170 seats while the rest are on B737s with at least 130 passengers capacity; add to that at least 3 B737 flights on Air Philippines. Then multiply them with the number of passengers that might be competing with you to be first to enter the building. Golly! My count is about 1,400 to 1,600 sleepy passengers!
So what’s the technique? If your flight falls within this time frame, be there at least 3 hours before your flight’s designated departure time. Oh yes, being there 3 hours before ETD will at times make you finish check-in procedures very early, and you end up sitting around the departure lounge for about 2 hours. But you’ll have to weigh the odds and ask yourself what would be better today, panicking to catch a flight with the loooong queues or lazing around to wait for your boarding call!
The scenario is even uglier at the old domestic terminal where Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit and Seair depart from. There are 15 or so flights departing between 5AM and 6AM – and of course there are also flights departing between 7 and 8AM. Oh chaos! Most everyone can tell you that starting at 3:30AM, the queue in that airport could go as far away as the restaurants beyond the police station in the adjacent building. Mighty gruesome!
International flight? The entrance doors will be busiest from 5 to 9AM and the whole afternoon (starting at noon) till early evening! Be aware that most international flights are bigger crafts that could carry up to about 400 passengers! So there are more people to line up with you if those flights are full!
Now, now… that was just for you to be able to enter the building. We never even touched about how some flights could have very slow and meticulous check-in procedures. You may want to know that flights to the US and Canada are slowest, followed by those to Japan and the Middle East. Why? Because of meticulous document verifications and/or too many bulky or excess baggage of your co-passengers.
You have been warned! Now let’s tackle how actually to get to the airport.
Going there
From the topic above, we just covered the “WHEN are you going to the airport”. So now, HOW are you going there?
Depending on which direction you are coming from, there are options. And we are assuming from hereon that you do not have the luxury of having someone to send you over to the airport, or you don’t have the capacity or the desire to ride the expensive limousines from the hotels and other such services. So you are commuting by bus, jeep or rail! Let’s describe the scenarios:
From wherever!
Easiest is to take a cab especially if you are coming from nearby places like Makati, Malate, Pasay, Paranaque or even Las Pinas and Alabang.
Oh let’s dwell on cabs a bit… Some of my friends are scared to take cabs alone, moreso during “unholy” hours like at dawn. Fortunately I have not had a bad cab incident yet (thank Heavens) going to an airport. But, since I’ve heard of such bad stories on the news many fortnights ago, then I think my friends have a reason to afraid so. But don’t panic yet!
If you must take a cab directly from where you are, the better option is call the cab companies and ask that you be fetched at a place of your choice, say, the gate of your house. That way, you can tell whoever it is you are leaving (like family, the hotel frontdesk, etc) to take note of the cab identification and tell them you’ll ring as soon as you are at the airport, and if you don’t do so, let them raise hell to the cab company, the police, the airline and the airport authorities. They’re all a phone call away.
Remember to go for cabs that you know are “institutionalized” or “corporate owned” – meaning they have a lot of taxi units and all of which have 2-way radios. You are less prone to anomalies here as their drivers know they’ll be fired if you lodge a valid complaint. Rule of thumb: I avoid the cabs with names that are not commonly seen because that means the driver probably is the owner and he has only one unit and that he can probably decide to rob you or anything like that hehe!
So, talking about cab companies, my favourites amongst the thousands of taxis are ABC, 24/7, TAI, EMP, MGE, eFe, Nine Stars, Sturdy, R&E. If you have been around as a constant cab rider in the metropolis, you’d have known that the last 6 of those taxi names are owned and managed by various descendants of the Enriquez clan from Pampanga and that the last 4 actually just have one garage and dispatch office somewhere in Novaliches! Interesting or intriguing?! Oh yes, R&E was the original name before it branched out into such names!
Unfortunately for those who have early-morning flights, your way to the airport would mean that the mass transit systems (the 2 LRTs and the MRT) won’t probably be operational yet as they only start between 5 and 6AM. And during those hours, buses are few in between. And when them buses become “many”, its horrendous traffic everywhere! So you’d get the drift that as the day grows, it will be better to ride the rails – and from their “terminal stations” you take a cab for the short ride to the airport. You can even take a bus from there.
From specific locations!
Oh there are just a dizzying mix of routes and connections that you can concoct to wisely approach your airport! Fortunately for me, I have lived in the middle of the metropolis, the south, the east, and now is happily settled in the north! Thus, I think I have tried a lot of ways and means going to those airports. And I find the early morning flights to the provinces and the islands a bit more exciting (and challenging)! Want proof? Here I go:
From the South:
Sucat in Paranaque:
(and the various areas along this route)
01] You can actually ride a Baclaran-bound jeep to any of the airports except NAIA2. No traffic at dawn… and very cheap! BUT! Try flagging those jeeps (or even trucks) that are not picking passengers but are on their way to the palengke in Baclaran, Pasay! You might be surprised they’d oblige to give you a ride and even send you off to NAIA2! This I did more than I can count with my ten fingers hehe! So who needs a taxi here?!
02] From the Sucat Interchange (intersection with SLEX) take a bus along the SLEX or a jeep on the service road (either side of SLEX) to Nichols – yes that’s also called Villamor Airbase. From the gate (SLEX side), take a tricycle or jeep to the other gate (Nichols Ave… yes, Villamor Ave). At this point you can take a cab to your airport of destination; or going to Domestic Terminal, take a Baclaran bound jeep and get off at the corner of domestic road, then walk towards the building.
From Muntinlupa (and that includes Alabang):
There are many options!
03] You can take a bus (via SLEX) or jeep (via the service roads (on either side of SLEX) to the Sucat Interchange then follow the directions in item 01 above (since all jeeps you get to ride actually comes from the intersection of SLEX and Sucat Road! Or
04] Take a jeep along Alabang-Zapote Road to Concha Cruz Drive in BF Paranaque. Get a tricycle to whisk you to McDonalds on the corner of Presidents Ave and Sucat Road. Then take the jeeps described in item 01 above! Or
05] Take a jeep along Alabang-Zapote Road to Casimiro Village (that intersection right in front of BF Resort Village). Then take a tricycle to EVACOM – it terminates at the 7-11 store along Sucat Road. Then hop unto a jeep or cab going to your airport described in item 01 above! Or
06] A variation to item 02 is take the same ride from the Alabang interchange since most buses or jeeps originate from Alabang passing by Sucat, then everything is as described in item 02.
07] Yet another way is to take that jeep in item 02 and/0r 06 but don’t get off at Nichols and head straight to “Pasay Rotunda” then from there take a cab to your airport. Take note: “Pasay-Rotunda” is the intersection of Taft Ave and EDSA where the MRT Terminates – AND, there is no circular rotund like you see at Quezon City’s “Welcome-Rotunda” though I hear that in the past there was one, thus the name!
08] Another way from Muntinlupa is to take a bus or jeep to Baclaran via Alabang-Zapote Road on to Coastal Road, then a cab from there to your airport.
Cavite & Batangas Areas:
09] Depending on which part of Cavite or Batangas you will be coming from, there are many options that actually usually connect to any of the above (items 01 to 08). Ask around and take the best route! Option 08 above is actually best had by buses emanating from Cavite that pass through Zapote.
10] If you are in that part of Cavite or Batangas that has easy access to Alabang Muntinlupa, then try connecting to any of options 01 thru 08.
From the West and Middle of Metro Manila:
City of Manila, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasay:
(these are the places nearest to the airport)
11] From anywhere in Pasay City, take a cab! You are just between 35 to a hundred pesos away from any of those airports! C’mon now!
12] From Makati and Mandaluyong, do the same! Taking public transportation will just be few pesos cheaper but definitely more tedious
From the East and North of Metro Manila
13] From Marikina, Pasig, Cainta, Quezon City or Caloocan, get yourself to EDSA, hop on the MRT then take a cab from its endpoint (Taft Ave. Station). If you have time, you may of course replace the MRT ride with a bus ride – just look for the bus signage that say “NAIA”.
14] Alternatively, if you are coming from Caloocan Malabon, Navotas & Valenzuela, you can take the LRT to its end point (Baclaran Station), wade your way amongst the bustling throng of humanity, then take a cab to your airport. Warning: From the Baclaran Station, there usually are fewer cabs as drivers avoid the area due to traffic (usually caused by a lot of humans walking on the streets and hawkers who spread their wares on the street where vehicles should be passing by.
Driving to the Airport
So you can’t allow yourself to commute and you are driving to the airport? Well, you have the Park-N-Fly facility at the corner of Domestic & Airport Roads. Yes, that’s inside the Caltex gas station complex. Check your car in and they have a number of shuttle vans to take you to that airport. Be wary that processing could take time if there are a lot of you checking in or a lot of other passengers who just arrived. Going rate as of this writing is P13 per hour. So that’s about P312 for every 24 hours.
So where do you pass going to the airport? At dawn or very early mornings, you can pass virtually anywhere as traffic will be light. Use EDSA or Roxas Blvd or Coastal Road, Even Sucat and Alabang Zapote Road. Just avoid C5 on such wee hours of the morning as that portion near (in-between) Taguig and Makati is notorious for unscrupulous people who can get you into trouble from as petty as them throwing stones at your car window or spreading wires/tacks on the road for you to have a flat tire and avail the services of the many “vulcanizing shops” there; to even hold-ups!
The best way
Especially if you live far like Novaliches, Bulacan, Valenzuela, Marikina, Antipolo, Cavite City, Batangas or Laguna, here is a better option:
I usually book myself “short-time” in any of the respectable “Motels” in Pasay where at about 2 hours from my departure I take option 11 above. Very convenient!
So, have a nice trip?!
From almost anywhere in the country, going to the airport by cab, bus, jeep, tricycle or any other means is pretty straightforward. Meaning you just hop into the airport at least an hour before departure. In fact, at times (at smaller airports) it can even be as tight as 30 minutes before the published departure time and you’ll still catch that flight!
But let us cover the Metro Manila Airports as they are the most complicated – aside from chaotic!
So where are you coming from? Caloocan? Makati? Pasig? Las Pinas? Bulacan? There are a lot of options depending on where you might be coming from. However, what many passengers do not realize or consider is the time of their flight’s departure as against the departure of other flights. And this is the single most important consideration. Let’s discuss that!
My flight, their flight!
In deciding as to what time you should start heading for the airport, consider the departure time of your flight and that of all other flights. That might sound ridiculous but, just the same, do it. It is very important! You want to know or at least have an estimate as to how many other people will be competing with you to be able to enter those godforsaken entrances to your airport of departure.
Examples: at the domestic wing of the Centennial Airport, any day there will be at the very least 8 PAL flights scheduled to depart between 5AM and 6AM with two of them using bigger airbus crafts of up to 170 seats while the rest are on B737s with at least 130 passengers capacity; add to that at least 3 B737 flights on Air Philippines. Then multiply them with the number of passengers that might be competing with you to be first to enter the building. Golly! My count is about 1,400 to 1,600 sleepy passengers!
So what’s the technique? If your flight falls within this time frame, be there at least 3 hours before your flight’s designated departure time. Oh yes, being there 3 hours before ETD will at times make you finish check-in procedures very early, and you end up sitting around the departure lounge for about 2 hours. But you’ll have to weigh the odds and ask yourself what would be better today, panicking to catch a flight with the loooong queues or lazing around to wait for your boarding call!
The scenario is even uglier at the old domestic terminal where Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit and Seair depart from. There are 15 or so flights departing between 5AM and 6AM – and of course there are also flights departing between 7 and 8AM. Oh chaos! Most everyone can tell you that starting at 3:30AM, the queue in that airport could go as far away as the restaurants beyond the police station in the adjacent building. Mighty gruesome!
International flight? The entrance doors will be busiest from 5 to 9AM and the whole afternoon (starting at noon) till early evening! Be aware that most international flights are bigger crafts that could carry up to about 400 passengers! So there are more people to line up with you if those flights are full!
Now, now… that was just for you to be able to enter the building. We never even touched about how some flights could have very slow and meticulous check-in procedures. You may want to know that flights to the US and Canada are slowest, followed by those to Japan and the Middle East. Why? Because of meticulous document verifications and/or too many bulky or excess baggage of your co-passengers.
You have been warned! Now let’s tackle how actually to get to the airport.
Going there
From the topic above, we just covered the “WHEN are you going to the airport”. So now, HOW are you going there?
Depending on which direction you are coming from, there are options. And we are assuming from hereon that you do not have the luxury of having someone to send you over to the airport, or you don’t have the capacity or the desire to ride the expensive limousines from the hotels and other such services. So you are commuting by bus, jeep or rail! Let’s describe the scenarios:
From wherever!
Easiest is to take a cab especially if you are coming from nearby places like Makati, Malate, Pasay, Paranaque or even Las Pinas and Alabang.
Oh let’s dwell on cabs a bit… Some of my friends are scared to take cabs alone, moreso during “unholy” hours like at dawn. Fortunately I have not had a bad cab incident yet (thank Heavens) going to an airport. But, since I’ve heard of such bad stories on the news many fortnights ago, then I think my friends have a reason to afraid so. But don’t panic yet!
If you must take a cab directly from where you are, the better option is call the cab companies and ask that you be fetched at a place of your choice, say, the gate of your house. That way, you can tell whoever it is you are leaving (like family, the hotel frontdesk, etc) to take note of the cab identification and tell them you’ll ring as soon as you are at the airport, and if you don’t do so, let them raise hell to the cab company, the police, the airline and the airport authorities. They’re all a phone call away.
Remember to go for cabs that you know are “institutionalized” or “corporate owned” – meaning they have a lot of taxi units and all of which have 2-way radios. You are less prone to anomalies here as their drivers know they’ll be fired if you lodge a valid complaint. Rule of thumb: I avoid the cabs with names that are not commonly seen because that means the driver probably is the owner and he has only one unit and that he can probably decide to rob you or anything like that hehe!
So, talking about cab companies, my favourites amongst the thousands of taxis are ABC, 24/7, TAI, EMP, MGE, eFe, Nine Stars, Sturdy, R&E. If you have been around as a constant cab rider in the metropolis, you’d have known that the last 6 of those taxi names are owned and managed by various descendants of the Enriquez clan from Pampanga and that the last 4 actually just have one garage and dispatch office somewhere in Novaliches! Interesting or intriguing?! Oh yes, R&E was the original name before it branched out into such names!
Unfortunately for those who have early-morning flights, your way to the airport would mean that the mass transit systems (the 2 LRTs and the MRT) won’t probably be operational yet as they only start between 5 and 6AM. And during those hours, buses are few in between. And when them buses become “many”, its horrendous traffic everywhere! So you’d get the drift that as the day grows, it will be better to ride the rails – and from their “terminal stations” you take a cab for the short ride to the airport. You can even take a bus from there.
From specific locations!
Oh there are just a dizzying mix of routes and connections that you can concoct to wisely approach your airport! Fortunately for me, I have lived in the middle of the metropolis, the south, the east, and now is happily settled in the north! Thus, I think I have tried a lot of ways and means going to those airports. And I find the early morning flights to the provinces and the islands a bit more exciting (and challenging)! Want proof? Here I go:
From the South:
Sucat in Paranaque:
(and the various areas along this route)
01] You can actually ride a Baclaran-bound jeep to any of the airports except NAIA2. No traffic at dawn… and very cheap! BUT! Try flagging those jeeps (or even trucks) that are not picking passengers but are on their way to the palengke in Baclaran, Pasay! You might be surprised they’d oblige to give you a ride and even send you off to NAIA2! This I did more than I can count with my ten fingers hehe! So who needs a taxi here?!
02] From the Sucat Interchange (intersection with SLEX) take a bus along the SLEX or a jeep on the service road (either side of SLEX) to Nichols – yes that’s also called Villamor Airbase. From the gate (SLEX side), take a tricycle or jeep to the other gate (Nichols Ave… yes, Villamor Ave). At this point you can take a cab to your airport of destination; or going to Domestic Terminal, take a Baclaran bound jeep and get off at the corner of domestic road, then walk towards the building.
From Muntinlupa (and that includes Alabang):
There are many options!
03] You can take a bus (via SLEX) or jeep (via the service roads (on either side of SLEX) to the Sucat Interchange then follow the directions in item 01 above (since all jeeps you get to ride actually comes from the intersection of SLEX and Sucat Road! Or
04] Take a jeep along Alabang-Zapote Road to Concha Cruz Drive in BF Paranaque. Get a tricycle to whisk you to McDonalds on the corner of Presidents Ave and Sucat Road. Then take the jeeps described in item 01 above! Or
05] Take a jeep along Alabang-Zapote Road to Casimiro Village (that intersection right in front of BF Resort Village). Then take a tricycle to EVACOM – it terminates at the 7-11 store along Sucat Road. Then hop unto a jeep or cab going to your airport described in item 01 above! Or
06] A variation to item 02 is take the same ride from the Alabang interchange since most buses or jeeps originate from Alabang passing by Sucat, then everything is as described in item 02.
07] Yet another way is to take that jeep in item 02 and/0r 06 but don’t get off at Nichols and head straight to “Pasay Rotunda” then from there take a cab to your airport. Take note: “Pasay-Rotunda” is the intersection of Taft Ave and EDSA where the MRT Terminates – AND, there is no circular rotund like you see at Quezon City’s “Welcome-Rotunda” though I hear that in the past there was one, thus the name!
08] Another way from Muntinlupa is to take a bus or jeep to Baclaran via Alabang-Zapote Road on to Coastal Road, then a cab from there to your airport.
Cavite & Batangas Areas:
09] Depending on which part of Cavite or Batangas you will be coming from, there are many options that actually usually connect to any of the above (items 01 to 08). Ask around and take the best route! Option 08 above is actually best had by buses emanating from Cavite that pass through Zapote.
10] If you are in that part of Cavite or Batangas that has easy access to Alabang Muntinlupa, then try connecting to any of options 01 thru 08.
From the West and Middle of Metro Manila:
City of Manila, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasay:
(these are the places nearest to the airport)
11] From anywhere in Pasay City, take a cab! You are just between 35 to a hundred pesos away from any of those airports! C’mon now!
12] From Makati and Mandaluyong, do the same! Taking public transportation will just be few pesos cheaper but definitely more tedious
From the East and North of Metro Manila
13] From Marikina, Pasig, Cainta, Quezon City or Caloocan, get yourself to EDSA, hop on the MRT then take a cab from its endpoint (Taft Ave. Station). If you have time, you may of course replace the MRT ride with a bus ride – just look for the bus signage that say “NAIA”.
14] Alternatively, if you are coming from Caloocan Malabon, Navotas & Valenzuela, you can take the LRT to its end point (Baclaran Station), wade your way amongst the bustling throng of humanity, then take a cab to your airport. Warning: From the Baclaran Station, there usually are fewer cabs as drivers avoid the area due to traffic (usually caused by a lot of humans walking on the streets and hawkers who spread their wares on the street where vehicles should be passing by.
Driving to the Airport
So you can’t allow yourself to commute and you are driving to the airport? Well, you have the Park-N-Fly facility at the corner of Domestic & Airport Roads. Yes, that’s inside the Caltex gas station complex. Check your car in and they have a number of shuttle vans to take you to that airport. Be wary that processing could take time if there are a lot of you checking in or a lot of other passengers who just arrived. Going rate as of this writing is P13 per hour. So that’s about P312 for every 24 hours.
So where do you pass going to the airport? At dawn or very early mornings, you can pass virtually anywhere as traffic will be light. Use EDSA or Roxas Blvd or Coastal Road, Even Sucat and Alabang Zapote Road. Just avoid C5 on such wee hours of the morning as that portion near (in-between) Taguig and Makati is notorious for unscrupulous people who can get you into trouble from as petty as them throwing stones at your car window or spreading wires/tacks on the road for you to have a flat tire and avail the services of the many “vulcanizing shops” there; to even hold-ups!
The best way
Especially if you live far like Novaliches, Bulacan, Valenzuela, Marikina, Antipolo, Cavite City, Batangas or Laguna, here is a better option:
I usually book myself “short-time” in any of the respectable “Motels” in Pasay where at about 2 hours from my departure I take option 11 above. Very convenient!
So, have a nice trip?!
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