Manila Airport sees international passenger traffic growth despite Middle East conflict

Despite the disruptions of flight operations due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East since the spring, International passenger traffic at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) between January 1 and October 22 saw a Year-on-Year rise by 2.6%, with the air hub serving 19.93 million passengers.

Airport operator New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) reported the NAIA served 507,772 more international passengers than the 19.42 million recorded during January-October 2025. Growth continued in October, with traffic rising 2.05% to 1,389,882 passengers within the first 22 days of the month.

At NAIA, International passengers accounted for 48.1% of the airport’s total traffic, up from 46.6% a year earlier. Domestic passenger volume declined 3.4% to 21.49 million.

“It’s encouraging to see international passenger traffic continuing to grow despite the challenges affecting aviation worldwide. It shows that demand for travel to and from the Philippines remains strong,” NNIC General Manager Lito Alvarez said. “Our responsibility is to make sure NAIA can support that demand with better facilities, more reliable operations, and a better experience for passengers.”

Following the start of the conflict in the Middle East in March, multiple airlines including Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Gulf Air, and Saudia have suspended flights from Manila to major cities in region such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Riyadh, and Jeddah.

While services to/from the Middle East were suspended, NAIA has welcomed other international air services. Air France recently resumed its Paris-Manila route, while Philippine Airlines will launch a new non-stop routes from Manila to Chicago in November. The Philippine flag carrier will also launch flights to Delhi and Mumbai in India before year’s end.

Next year, US-based Delta will return to Manila with its non-stop flights from Los Angeles in March 2027.

In 2025, NAIA served a record 52 million passengers. While NNIC is working on upgrade work at the airport, NAIA is operating far beyond its designed capacity of 35 million passengers.