(Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a 3-part PortCalls series on Manila’s port congestion. For Part 1 on the seaport crisis, read here.)
THE AIRPORT CRISIS
Air Cargo in Crisis
While the seaport situation has been building for months, the air cargo crisis at NAIA erupted with alarming speed — and its consequences have been felt almost immediately in the country’s most critical export sector.
Air cargo warehouse congestion at NAIA has disrupted the movement of semiconductor components, with clearance rates dropping from 95% of shipments processed in less than three days last year to just 76% as of mid-June. For an industry that runs on just-in-time delivery, that gap is devastating.
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ferdinand Ferrer, also chairman and chief executive of electronics manufacturer EMS Group of Companies, said the delays are hitting shipments of wafers, storage devices, and other semiconductor parts — all of which move exclusively by air. At least one global technology company has already suspended production of one of its product lines as a direct result of the backlog, according to a PortCalls source in the logistics industry who handles air freight for the affected firm. Erich Lingad, immediate past president of the Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association Inc. (PMTLAI), warned that other manufacturers could be forced to follow.
Dimerco Express Group has flagged the operational challenges in its latest report on Asia Pacific logistics, noting that ongoing terminal congestion in Manila is “extending door-to-door transit times, making shipment planning more critical than ever.”
The stakes could not be higher. Electronics are the Philippines’ largest import and export commodity, and semiconductor components are the lifeblood of that industry. A prolonged disruption at NAIA threatens not just individual production lines but the broader supply chains and export earnings the country’s manufacturing sector depends on. Lingad described the situation as “alarming and needs high-level government intervention, not only from BOC.”
Root Cause: A Warehouse System That Lost Capacity It Cannot Replace
The air cargo crisis traces directly to a structural collapse in warehouse capacity — and unlike the seaport congestion, it cannot be attributed to a volume surge alone. Two key facilities have been lost in recent years and have not been replaced.
Miascor, once a significant cargo handler, was ordered closed in 2018 following a string of baggage theft incidents. More recently, Philippine Skylanders International, Inc. (PSI) was shut down after NAIA operator New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. (NNIC) — which took over airport operations in 2024 — reclaimed the premises for redevelopment.
With PSI and Miascor gone, only two customs bonded warehouses serving multiple carriers remain at NAIA: Paircargo and Cargohaus. Paircargo carries the overwhelming burden — handling roughly 70% of NAIA’s air cargo volume by virtue of its direct ramp access, an operational advantage Cargohaus, despite being within the airport complex, does not have. The remaining bonded warehouses — operated by Philippine Airlines, DHL, UPS, and Royal Cargo — handle only their own cargo.
The national freight forwarding association PMTLAI formally flagged the growing delays in a June 3 letter to Paircargo, citing the volume surge following PSI’s closure as a primary driver. PortCalls reached out to NNIC for comment on its plans for cargo infrastructure at NAIA but had not received a response as of press time. As the airport operator responsible for the redevelopment that triggered PSI’s closure, its plans for replacement cargo-handling capacity — and the timeline for delivering it — remain the central unanswered question in the NAIA cargo crisis.
e2M at the Airport: The Same System, the Same Problem
The e2M burden is felt at NAIA as well, though less frequently than at the seaports. Air cargo clearance runs through the same aging BOC platform, and any slowdowns hit an environment that is far more time-sensitive than sea freight. Airlines and freight forwarders handling perishables, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductor components — cargo with narrow processing windows — cannot absorb the kind of delays e2M periodically inflicts. When the platform is sluggish, entries queue, timelines stretch, and cargo that should clear within hours lingers for days. In a warehouse already operating well beyond designed capacity, every hour of avoidable delay is another hour of space that cannot be freed up for the next shipment off the ramp.
The irony is not lost on the industry: BOC-NAIA has extended operating hours to 7 am to 9 pm daily, including weekends — but longer hours on a slow or unreliable system do not proportionally translate into faster processing. The human resource is available; the technology and warehouse capacity are the constraints.
The Response: Satellite Processing, Extended Hours, Old Miascor Area
BOC-NAIA District Collector Atty. Maria Yasmin Obillos-Mapa has moved on several fronts simultaneously.
Operating hours have been extended from the previous 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, to 7 am to 9 pm daily including weekends and holidays, with physical cargo release continuing beyond 9 pm. The bureau is encouraging stakeholders to schedule releases between 7 am and 1 pm to avoid the congested afternoon window. A dedicated Viber group has been set up for following up on unlocated entries. Perishable goods, pharmaceuticals, and other time-sensitive shipments are being fast-tracked, with cargo release available around the clock.
The most significant structural relief measure is the conversion of the Duty Free/Columbia Complex area into a satellite cargo processing facility. Already serving as a staging area for several days, the space was formally agreed upon on June 25 when NNIC allowed BOC and Paircargo to use it for actual on-site cargo clearance and processing. BOC Assistant Commissioner Atty. Vincent Philip Maronilla noted the site’s suitability — it previously served as a designated examination area, with the physical infrastructure already in place. “All we have to do is bring in personnel of Paircargo,” he said.
Additionally, BOC is exploring the temporary declaration of the old Miascor area as a customs processing zone — a move that would restore capacity to a space that once served the airport cargo ecosystem before its closure eight years ago.
BOC has set an ambitious target: to clear the Paircargo backlog by July, ahead of the “ber months” when volumes historically spike. “If you have this situation pagdating ng (when we get to the) ‘ber months, that’s going to be a bigger problem,” Maronilla warned. “We hope to resolve this entire issue — hopefully release everything by July and have a perfect system already by then.” — PortCalls
Watch out for Part 3: What Needs to Be Done
