Manila Airport seems to be coming alive as the Philippines begins to welcome tourists.
Since the quarantine period on my return to Japan has been eased, the trip to Cebu is finally becoming realistic, and I began discussing with my wife when we should go.
Our oldest son's birthday is July 7, so I am thinking of scheduling it for about a week after that date.
So I checked the airline ticket prices and they are still quite expensive.
A direct flight from Narita to Cebu costs 186,140 yen round trip.
This is more than four times the price of the previous round-trip flight, which cost 40,000-50,000 yen.
Even via Manila, it costs about 80,000 yen. With my wife and I, it would be 160,000 yen, which I feel is expensive.
However, until about a month ago, one-way fares to Manila were more than 200,000 yen, so compared to that, the price has come down considerably.
Oil prices are soaring, partly due to the war in Ukraine, but we expect them to be a bit cheaper once the traveler traffic is more fully developed.
Direct flights to Cebu are easy because of the short flight time. If you fly via Manila, it takes at least 11 hours.
I once flew Japan Airlines to Manila and transferred to Cebu Pacific Airlines to go to Cebu, but I had a hard time moving from one terminal to another at Manila airport.
Japan Airlines is in Terminal 1 and Cebu Pacific is in Terminal 3, which are quite far apart.
There are shuttle buses between terminals, but they are extremely infrequent.
In addition, it is very difficult to find where the buses arrive and depart.
In the end, we gave up on the bus and took a cab, but this cab was one of Manila's most outrageous cabs, and although it used a meter, the meter rate rose abnormally fast.
It cost me 500 pesos just to get from one terminal to another. I heard that it should cost only 150 pesos.
If the airlines we use are the same, I don't think there will be any transfers between terminals, but I really want to fly direct to Cebu, but at the current price, I will have to go via Manila, even if I don't want to.
Since it is still March, let's wait and see for a while and then decide on specific dates and purchase airline tickets in May.
