Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is on the southern side of greater Manila and is spread across three different terminals. They are loosely broken up by international, domestic, and by airline. Philippines Airlines has the majority of flights coming in and out of Terminal 1. Domestic flights generally fly in and out of Terminal 2. Terminal 3 is the large international terminal where most airlines fly into. You need to always check your documentation, as these are generalities and not set in stone and often changed frequently.
The key to understanding the terminals in NAIA is though they sit side by side and can be viewed as very close to each other on maps, the amount of time it takes to get from one terminal to the next is actually quite long. The roads go around the perimeter of airport, so there is not a direct path from one terminal to the next. Because the roads leave the airport area and enter Manila traffic, congestion is very high on the roads much of the time. Therefore, much of the way between the terminals is stop-and-go traffic.
In this post, I will help you to visualize the steps you can take to get from an international flight to a domestic flight, specifically from Terminal 3 (international airline carriers) to Terminal 2 (domestic flights within the Philippines).
How Long Do I Need?
When booking flights, please give yourself a minimum of 4 hours to get through international immigration, baggage claim, transit and checking in for your domestic flight.
Step by Step on How to Transfer
1. Arrive at Terminal 3 International Arrivals. Follow signs to exit through the terminal. Go through immigration. The Philippines has visa free entrance for many countries.
2. Once you hit baggage claim, you will begin to see signs labeled Terminal Transfer Bus. Follow these signs as you exit baggage claim. You will begin to see these signs on the floor to direct you. Continue following these signs as you will go through what feels like a back corridor of the airport.
3. When you reach the Terminal Transfer Bus area, you will go through a set of doors and then need to go through security again with your bags.
4. You will reach a desk with an airport attendant. You can see the waiting area for the bus behind the desk. The airport attendant will ask you for your flight details and will give you an update on the terminal transfer bus schedule, the estimated waiting time and whether you can make your next flight or not using the bus. At the time of writing, the buses came through every 45 minutes.
5. If the airport attendant believes you can make your flight, sit and wait in the waiting area until the next bus comes for you to get on. Expect there to be traffic when moving from one terminal to the next because the bus leaves and joins Manila city traffic to get to the next terminal.
6. If you are unable to make your flight due to high congestion in the waiting area, the next choice is to take a taxi. I highly recommend having the Grab App on your phone before you arrive in the Philippines. Grab is similar to Uber and is a very popular app throughout Southeast Asia used for taxiing, ordering food, grocery, and deliveries. It will help make it easier to get a taxi to the other terminal if you need to, plus it will be handy in cities across the Philippines for getting a taxi and paying fair price. You can go back through the corridor and out to the front entrance of Terminal 3 and wait for your Grab taxi to arrive. This will be right outside the main arrival hall.
