I promised earlier to describe what I have seen at the new Panglao International Airport, so here I go.
First thing I noticed during landing, the soil on this part of the island is colored red. Did you see it on the video? Not that it matters to passengers' safety, security, comfort or convenience. I just found that amazing, since the beach sand around this island is notably light-colored from cream to almost white!
Well, if you take a hint from above, the color red kept 're-appearing' in my notes. So keep reading!
Oh, here it is hehehe! The aerobridge floor is colored red, and the walls are pink! I said "bakit kaya"?
It made me smile. I was/am not sure if I should like or despise it. It is just so unique a color to choose for an airport. Oh eh, arrival pa lang eh, so I reserved my first impressions. Can't hate it or like it (yet)!
Out of the aerobridge, I excitedly looked out from the glass windows/walls of the gangway...
I mean "nice" that their gangways are generally made of transparent glass - so passengers still have a lovely view while boarding their planes. Unlike at older airport versions such as KLIA2 and/or NAIA T3.
I'm not so sure though, if it is really necessary to have a long gangway. It is good that ground vehicles have 2 lanes each way - they can go around unimpeded. But that means a longer walk for passengers. I mean, do those "islands" near the terminal building really need to be that wide? What for? Bulaklak?
I still have to ask around on what's the significance of a long gangway, thus creating those garden-like islands on the tarmac - if there is a "technical" need for it other than "beauty"? They look hip anyway.
If at all, I guess the Ground Stewardesses will like that long gangway. During boarding, they could just continually let passengers enter the boarding gate, even if there's a bottleneck at the plane's door. By doing so, they could count their boarding passes ASAP to determine if anyone is still 'missing' - while people queue in that gangway waiting to enter the plane. Aw, nosebleed na ba? Let us drop this topic!
Anyway, let's go back to colors hehehe... look, the gangway is green like the roof of the main building, and the aerobridge is yellowish to pinkish like the building beams. An uncommon color combination.
Now look at the cement (it's called tarmac or apron or ramp in airline language), it is also colored red, while normally it would be just gray, right? Hmm, I think, they made use of the earth/soil/sand in the area, which, as I said during landing, is colored red! Did that affect the whole airport's 'color scheme'?
I think all those 'weird' colors are/were part of an attempt of the designer to make the facility 'merge' with its natural environment, which is a fad (popular practice) nowadays. Earth Colors daw - literally!
I/we will just think it is "kakaiba", for indeed it is. But bottomline (so far) is, I do not think they affect passenger safety, security, comfort and convenience. That's why I can't decide if I like it or not, heheh!
Speaking of the environment, I heared on the news that the roof style represents the Chocolate Hills.
Di ba? Try looking at these two new airports from a distance. For Mactan, you can check this, and then compare the roof to the above picture. During inauguration of Mactan's Terminal 2 roof was described as mimicking the waves around the island. But to me it's more like the Chocolate Hills than the above!
Eto namang ke Bohol, looks like a representation of the sea waves than the Chocolate Hills. Araguy!
Let's go inside now, okay? Ang haba na ng story natin, nasa aerobridge at gangway pa lang pala ako!
This is the hallway that connects the boarding gates to the gangways and aerobridges....
Mahirap me lumiko tungo sa maling landas!
Hey did you notice the floor? What immediately came to my brain was... "floor wax"! I won't be wrong to say this was the first time I saw airport floor tiles sporting that color. Kaaliw, parang sa kusina lang!
Alright, this is the way to arrival area - via this escalator gong down.
If you don't like the escalator, you can take the "wooden stairs" just beside it!
If you don't like the escalator and you don't like the stairs, there's a lift (elevator) beside them.
Downstairs also behind a glass wall, to the left and front of the escalator, I was surprised to see this:
Airline/Airport people call them Bus Gates - for flights that don't use aerobridges (departing upstairs) where their passengers are instead ferried by bus, or even asked to walk to their planes. Those gates are supposedly only for flights using small planes. But in Cebu and Manila, Cebu Pacific use bus gates even for their big planes - since they like parking their planes at remote bays (far from the terminal).
Is there a reason for that? Yes, but the reason is not because the airport decides to put them at those very far remote bays. Da tsismis is: CebPac park planes there because they have cheaper parking fees!
Anyway, back to that picture above, I spotted something wrong, and I hope it's not forever. Meron nga bang forever? So what is wrong? Ay, monobloc chairs! Ano ba yan? Eh kaka-inaugurate lang ng airport na ito 3 days ago, "congested" na kaagad? Impossible! Or design flaw? Or improper use by the airport?
We'll know about that in the near future, but not now hehe! Baka naman hindi dumating ang enough number of chairs in time for their opening of this airport. Yet, even that, is poor project management.
Wait. I was an arriving passenger, right? Why are we talking about departures? That should come later!
Kakaiba!
I noticed, after the escalator/stairs/elevator, there is that "extra space" with its own door (see above). Anybody would wonder why, right? Imagine this: you are rushing down as arriving passengers from so many flights, then someone closes the door, accidentally or foolishly intentionally. What will happen?
Chaos, to say the least! It may even be dangerous - like a stampede could happen, or irate passengers might break that glass in frustration, because there is no other way in the area but go back up. Kulba!
If you still can't picture what I am saying above, let's try this: imagine you're at the 2nd floor of a mall going down to 1st floor so you can go out; but for whatever reason, there's a glass wall of only about 4 meters distance from the stairs/elevator/escalator and the door (like in that picture above) is closed.
People will just keep going down for they don't know what's happening downstairs while you who are already down there are stuck and can't move any other way but back up. How? Someone has to shout 'stop' or 'go back' or anyhting like that. Who will do that, you? Howsoever you scream, iisipin lang nila isa kang hangal, people will still stream down, because that's the only way to exit! Kagulo at ipitan na!
That is how dangerous that door is!
Why is there such a door anyway? Ma! A design flaw? Maybe! Or it was originally not in the design and some "bright idiot" commanded that it be installed? Aba, pwede rin! And that's highly probable haha!
I had to stand in that area for some time, thing objectively (yes, meron din tayo nyan oi!) on what that glass wall and door might be for - since there was no one to asnwer my question - that manong guard behind the glass just shrugged to say he does not know (oo nga naman, what do they know anyway?).
All I could think of were: 1) someone's trying to make it commercial space (tindahan), or 2) it could be for the health quarantine people to setup that heat-sensor they use during health-related outbreaks.
If it's for the latter, however, it's such a short span. People are supposed to walk normall straight in a hallway with those sensors aimed as they walk (like at NAIA 1, 2 and 3). And it's just a camera and one computer. Who needs that wide space? If you ask people to walk on a cordoned zigzag since that's the only logical thing to do, they'd be too near each other, giving the virus more chances to infect others.
In short therefore, that glass wall and door right after the stairs is dangerously stupid.
Eto na, after you pass that unnecessary glass door, is the approach to the baggage claim area.
Baggage carousels, Belt 1 foreground, and 2 at the back. Good enough, even if the floor is too red!
I smell a future issue!
Anyway, after claiming bags, walk to the arrival lobby - actually walang lobby, it's curbside na agad!
As for me, I just walked straight outside, beyond those people waiting at the barricades.
They even told me that the bus is just a few steps right across the arrival area. I saw it and went for it!
The driver even showed me to the bus at right - and I saw that there were already passengers seated!
No specific departure times displayed anywhere yet. But driver told me their trips are every hour 6AM to 6PM, though when a bus gets full (i.e., when a flight arrives), they don't wait for the hour and leave.
I didn't ask anymore but if that's their style, I would guess they have 'spare' buses parked somewhere, because, as the driver said, they committed that a bus will leave every hour, even without passengers.
They'll have passengers along the way, since it's a real public bus, not just for airline passengers.
But after just 4 minutes of waiting for more passengers, my bus took off SRO (standing room only)!
It went out via this new road... but I eventually got lost as to which area we were, since it's new to me!
In less than 10 minutes, the bus stopped at what they call Rona's Corner - name of a (24/7) store that is actually across the corner of the Circumferential Road and Alona Beach Road - where most tourists get off, then walk or ride habal-habal or tricycle to their respective resorts on the beach. And so I did.
Don't worry about forgetting Rona's Corner, it will probably be "forgotten" as a "bus stop name" soon, since bigger more prominently seen-from-afar establishments have risen, or are rising in that corner.
The Island Souvenirs signboard is very prominent, and that is normally the spot where the bus stops (across Rona's Corner). Plus McDonalds and Jollibee have just also opened stores in that very corner!
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