CRITICISMS against the 30-year-old Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1 are undeserved, the country’s airport chief said on Wednesday, citing the improvements done in the past and plans—once a study to determine the building’s structural soundness is finished in November.

Jose Angel Honrado, the general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, was reacting to the latest findings put out by the web site The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, which ranked Naia 1 as the worst in the world; last year, it was No. 5 or the worst in Asia.

“Palagay ko hindi masyadong makatarungan ’yung pag-deklara nila ng worst airport. However, we take this as a challenge, we have done so much already,” he said in a radio interview.

He conceded, though, that the terminal is small because it was designed three decades ago and has practically outlived its usefulness.

“The challenge is space,” he said.

But since last year, when the web site ranked Naia 1 as the worst airport in Asia, Honrado said he had done a lot to improve the terminal, such as providing running water from Maynilad Water Services Inc. and supplying enough toilet paper in the comfort rooms.

“I have to deny the report na walang water at toilet paper. ’Yung water, we have high water pressure,” he said.

Once in a while, repairs had to be done, necessitating the closure of some water pipes, but Honrado said these were announced in advance. “At kapag walang tubig naman eh ang repair ay during the closing hours, normally midnight up to 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

The web site also pointed to “rampant” incidents of extortion inside the airport, a problem that Honrado said airport authorities had already resolved.

He said the reported extortions happened in 2010 and since then the customs and immigration bureaus have started cleansing their ranks of corrupt workers mulcting passengers.

“We have caught many of them and some have been convicted or removed from their jobs,” he said in Tagalog.

Honrado also dismissed claims of theft inside the airport, citing the presence of police inside the airport at all times. He also said some items could just have been misplaced.

“Napakahirap patunayan na ito’y nakawan, posibleng naiiwanan ito. Mayroon tayong help desk doon. May lost and found. At marami ring nare-recover sa lost and found. Maraming laptop ang naisosoli natin at maraming passport ang naibabalik sa may-ari,” he said.

Honrado also said measures have been taken to prevent nonessential personnel from loitering around the airport.

However, the BusinessMirror gathered that extortion exists at the airport in many forms, such as asking visitors or passengers for money in exchange for luggage trolleys, which some unscrupulous persons “gather” in the parking areas.

There are also airport insiders who ask money from arriving passengers right outside the luggage conveyor area.

Reports also persist that some policemen are forced to solicit money because their superiors give them “cash” quotas to deliver every month.

While airline personnel have reported these cases to Honrado, coming up with hard evidence to back them up is often difficult.

The Airline Operators Council says it is the breakdown of discipline among airport employees, officials, police, porters and those that have any link with airport operations that had emboldened them to be corrupt.

Honrado admitted that after 30 years, Naia 1 is already showing signs of wear and tear and that “the only solution” for this problem is for the country to have a new international gateway in Clark, Pampanga.

He said the Philippines would be able to catch up with neighbors once a final decision has been made by the Department of Transportation and Communications to have a new gateway at Clark.

“That’s why we are pushing for Clark as the new gateway that will give us a modern building and ample space for all airport operations, but the challenge is how to connect Clark to Manila,” he said.

Honrado said the results of a structural study to be released by November would determine if Naia 1 could still be renovated. In the meantime, he said the airport management had already replaced the old carpets and widened the departure and arrival areas.

The ranking of Naia 1 was based on reviews of travelers who complained, among other things, of “safety concerns, lack of comfortable seating, rude staff, hostile security, poor facilities, no [or few] services to pass the time, bribery, being kicked out and general hassles of being in the airport.”

Besides Naia 1, those that made it to the 10 worst airports in the world are: Paris Beauvais in France, Keflavik International Airport in Iceland, Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport in Italy, Kiev International Airport in Ukraine, Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Germany, London Luton Airport in the United Kingdom, Pisa Airport in Italy, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France and Los Angeles International Airport in the US.

“The list this year is very heavily European simply because that’s where the most airport-sleeping adventures are. We base our list on user reviews and poll votes and we just happen to receive more reviews for overnight sleepovers for European airports,” the web site said on the quality and facilities of the world’s airports.

The web site named Singapore’s Changi, Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok and South Korea’s Incheon as the world’s top airports in 2011.