Diosdado Macapagal International Airport

It was our first time ever to ride our way down to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) for our flight out, which was located in Clark Pampanga.  It was indeed very far than the NAIA Manila Airport, because we were from the Ortigas Area.  We decided to book our flight going to Kota Kinabalu with AirAsia, which didn't have flights offered in NAIA, because of the promo price of the airfare. 

The travel time from Ortigas to Trinoma was around 30 minutes at that time because the traffic was moderately fast.  We met our friends in Trinoma where we rode to DMIA together.  The travel time from Trinoma to the airport was around 1 hour and 30 minutes.  The traffic was also good, then when you get to NLEX, it will be smooth sailing until you reach DMIA.

On the way near the airport, you will notice that unlike that Manila Airport, there are only a few people.  It was explainable since DMIA was small and can only accomodate a number of airplanes.  The check-in counters were like just 6 or maybe 7.

There were food carts inside where you can buy food to fill up your stomachs, especially for delayed flights, like what we experienced.

They only had 1 pre-departure area shared by passengers of different flights.  The seats were able to accomodate around 90 people.

One very important thing that needs to be noted when having flights in DMIA are the delayed flights.  I've mentioned above that our flight was delayed.  The original departure time was 4:00pm, but we received a SMS from AirAsia at around 12:00nn that it will be delayed to 6:00pm.  During that time we were still in Trinoma.

As most of us know, we need to be in the airport at least 2 hours before the departure time to make the check-in of luggages and go through the immigration.  So we arrived the airport 15 minutes before 4:00pm, only to know that even if we received the SMS that the flight was delayed to 6:00pm, we still need to check-in based on the original departure time.  The reason given by the security was that the immigration closes early.  If I remembered correctly, I think they said that it will close at 4:00pm.  What's the point of letting us know that the flight is delayed if we still need to be in the airport that early, aside from making us aware of the change in schedule???

Also, the airport tax in DMIA is higher than the Manila Airport.  It was 600 pesos, cheaper than the 750 pesos of Manila Airport.  Then another thing we discovered was if you were a Canadian citizen, the usual travel tax of 1,650 pesos that you pay will only be 200 pesos.  Some of the perks of being a dual citizen... hehe.  This may also apply for other dual citizenships.

If you ever decide to book a flight in DMIA in the future, these are what you can expect =)