SYDNEY, Australia—First impressions last. If you meet a person who stinks, you will forever remember that scent about him, and never mind that he just happened to have come from a football game. I have a college classmate who mispronounced the title of one of my sister’s first articles, saying “Major DOO” instead of “Major DUH”. I still laugh now whenever I remember it, even if he turned out to be one of the smartest students in our class. This is why it is important to put our best foot forward when meeting somebody for the first time.

The same principle goes for countries. The first thing that you see when you get to a certain country is the airport. And whatever impression that particular airport leaves on you, it is sure to come up in one of your conversations about the country.

I am currently in my hotel room in Sydney enjoying the cool weather, but I can’t help but remember the transition from our own Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) to the Kingsford Smith International Airport.  We took Qantas Airlines to Sydney, so we departed from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. We all are used to the Manila traffic so getting to and from the airport was not a big issue for me. If you think about it objectively, it really is inefficient and unorganized. The drop-off points at the airport are so narrow that all the cars squish on the road, making it a huge feat to get to the lobby from the car. Moreover, everybody seems to form their own line to get inside, making the process even slower.

The Naia was designed by a national artist, Leandro Locsin. I still admire the architecture until now. I’m sure that it was one of the most contemporary structures at the time of its inception (’70s) but with the current trend of airport design, it now seems dated and old-fashioned. It was completed in 1981 with a space of 67,000 square meters and a capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year. It has long shot past its capacity and its atrocious condition routinely lands it at bottom among its Asian counterparts. It’s long overdue for a replacement.

Upon entry in Naia, you are welcomed by a columnless space, dominated by the slightly curved grid of the ceiling, formed by the dark-stained wood beams. Aesthetically, it exudes a very Filipino feel (which makes Architect Locsin’s efforts commendable), but functionally the lobby has become too small for the growing number of passengers who use the airport daily. The size of the lobby is not even one-tenth of the Sydney airport’s departure lobby. More often than not, the lobby becomes too cramped from simultaneous check-ins.

Although the lobby is floored with elegant marbles, the rest of the airport flooring is very industrial. The transient spaces have vinyl and embossed surfaces, causing your luggage to constantly vibrate and make an annoying sound as you pull it along the hallways. This is definitely not a good finish if you want the passengers to go to and from areas within the airport with ease. Also, some of the acoustic ceilings are already sagging and in dire need of replacements.

Going to our departure terminal was also a major inconvenience. We had to take a

long set of stairs just to get down to the waiting area of our gate. If I were an elderly or a passenger with heavy carry-on luggage, it would really be hard for me to get down to the waiting area.

The Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney is a relatively old airport, just like the Naia.  It was originally declared an aerodome in 1920, but was renamed in 1953 to honor Charles Kingsford Smith, a pioneering Australian aviator. The first runways were built in 1933, but by the ’60s there was a need for a new international terminal. In 1970 the new terminal was opened by no less than Queen Elizabeth II. It is one of the world’s oldest and continually operated commercial airport, and yet it still looks and feels newer than our own. The departure lobby is very spacious, about 10 times as wide as our own. Of course, the lines to the check-in counters would still get crowded, but not enough to fill up the whole lobby.

The general design of the airport utilized a space-frame technology, which is essentially a structural network of steel members. These networks form a triangular module that architects or engineers can piece together three-dimensionally to form virtually any shape they want while ensuring structural stability. This allows structures to have wide expanses of uninterrupted space because the space-frame carries the load of the roof, eliminating the need for columns. This has been prevalent in contemporary airport design because of the requirement of an airport to have smooth circulatory spaces. Some examples are Kansai Airport in Japan, Stansted Airport in London, and Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong.

The interiors of the Kingsford Smith International Airport give the illusion that it is bigger than it actually is. Aside from the surfaces being rendered stark white, the ceilings are cathedral-height, which makes you feel dwarfed by the structure. The exterior walls are made entirely out of glass, which allows natural light to flood into the space, further enhancing the sense of vastness.

Although we do have a contemporary airport up and running, it is sadly limited to the access of only one airline, Philippine Airlines. Even Terminal 2 gets overly crowded at times.

As I write this article, I eagerly anticipate the opening of the new Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. The foreign design consultant of the structure was SOM (Skidmore, Owings, and Merril), a multinational firm which has designed a number of modern buildings in the Metro, including the Philippine Stock Exchange Building and the RCBC Tower, aside from countless high-profile structures all over the world. The new terminal is a US$640-million, 189,000-square-meter facility that is designed to have a capacity of 13million passengers per year.

I have seen glimpses of the new airport—from the Slex Skyway, from the road fronting it and even in magazines, and by the looks of it, I am sure that it will be capable of making a lasting, positive first impression on the visitors of our country. I do hope that our government settles all the negative setbacks that have been preventing the airport from finally opening because our country is in desperate need to put its best foot forward.

Urban Monologues: First Impressions Last

SYDNEY, Australia—First impressions last. If you meet a person who stinks, you will forever remember that scent about him, and never mind that he just happened to have come from a football game. I have a college classmate who mispronounced the title of one of my sister’s first articles, saying “Major DOO” instead of “Major DUH”.

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