At 4:30am, NAIA T3 was brimming with lines of people trying to get inside. Past the x-ray machine, there's barely walking space across the departure hall. Overhead, check-in counters didn't have the instructive route displays. Uniformed airline representatives were out of sight. And, queues to anywhere weren't progressing. Needless to say, the fragile airport system broke down.
As if confirming the hopeless situation, at 4:45am, electricity went out and airport operations froze.
However, even after Cebu Pacific announced cancellation of several flights, passengers remained hopeful -- staying in line, awaiting further information, queuing at the booking office, and considering other airline operators. I was one of them.
Completely set on departing for and arriving at Butuan on this exact day, I held on to the fact that my flight number wasn't proclaimed cancelled. So I patiently and calmly stayed in line at the drop-bag counter. After a couple of hours observing other passengers, I finally decided to do something and checked with an airline representative. She admitted that although my flight hasn't taken off, it is unlikely that it will and re-booking my flight would be the recommended course of action.
This left me stuck and unproductive. I didn't want to leave only to make the trip to the airport again. I didn't want to wait another day to start my long-awaited trip. And I didn't want to arrive at Butuan late during the day. Regrettably. all alternatives inevitably lead to one of the above.
Now I'm at a coffee shop inside the airport, trying to both wait out the line and to make a decision. It's unfortunate that my trip isn't going as planned and will likely be postponed to another day but it is also an experience that I can draw from and have managed to write something about.
Oh well. Here's to breaking out of Manila eventually.
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| A snapshot of the lines that extended from the previous night to the afternoon the following day. |
