WARNING: May take forever to read.
For those who don’t know yet, Lumbia Airport will eventually cease to operate for commercial flights and has transferred all of their day flights to the spanking new Laguindingan International Airport (LIA) since June 15.
Now, since our departure date and location was moved from June 18, Lumbia to June 17, LIA… One of our major challenges for this trip was how to get to the new airport without getting left behind our 6:45 AM flight (check-in time is 1 hour prior departure time).
I know what you’re thinking…
“Iligan-CDO bus trips are available 24/7. So that shouldn’t be a problem if you wake up early!” Yes that’s true. But once we make our stop at Laguindingan, then what?
“Airports always have shuttles and taxis. DUH.” Sure there are smart ass… But what if there aren’t? It doesn’t hurt to be extra cautious you know.
My boyfriend and I originally planned to take a taxi from Iligan all the way to the LIA and shell out about 1300 bucks (OUCH). But I am lucky enough to have a friend who was going to drive his way there because he also had an early morning flight to catch on the same day as ours. And so we hitched and donated 200+ for gas (imagine how much we saved!) and got to the LIA much earlier than expected.
And thank God for woman intuition because I was right. Although there were a lot of “habal-habal” queuing along the highway, there were no taxis nor shuttles in sight. Taxis and shuttles aren’t available until when the sun’s up. So if you’re catching an early morning flight and have a huge luggage, I don’t recommend that you take the bus. Hire a taxi. That’s the only way to go if you’re commuting from Iligan. At least for now.
This is how the airport looks like at 4AM from the parking lot. Don’t be fooled. While it looks huge from here, it’s really a lot smaller than it looks like.
Going in. The airport is very clean and looks aesthetically pleasing. It is a huge improvement of the Lumbia Airport. I do hope they keep this up.
Despite arriving early, the queue was already very long. Notice how the line ends outside of the building.
Look how SUPER CROWDED and CRAMPED it is inside! Superimposed with the troll meme face is my friend “he-who-should-not-be-named” by the way.
Imagine, all the people in the photo above, including us, are just the early morning domestic flight passengers. I can’t imagine how more crammed it will be once the LIA accommodates international flights. But I’m pretty sure they will expand by then as there is soooo much free space around the airport (unless the funds for expansion are “pocketed” if you know what I mean).
And because it must be said, I find that the 200-peso terminal fee is quite unjustifiable since LIA has horrible service. Chaotic queues, grumpy customer service assistants, clueless airport personnel, poor air-conditioning, no ATMs, cash only transactions (I prefer to just swipe my debit card for a faster transaction thank you very much) and the list goes on… Just be ready to get upset in short. I seriously doubt if anyone working there was ready for LIA’s soft-opening. Although, I do commend them for their baggage handling service. My Mickey Mouse suitcase was properly cared for. I’ve been very particular about this especially after what NAIA did to it (read story here).
After all that chaos and a few security checks later, we just had to sit down, relax and have our morning beverage at Seattle’s Best Coffee.
Beside Seattle’s Best Coffee is Kenny Rogers which I didn’t bother taking a photo of since it was still closed.
Also, what I didn’t bother taking a photo of was the passengers’ lounge area since all I wanted to do at that point was to find a seat for the three of us and just rest. It was a challenge to do because not only were the seats insufficient, there were a lot of inconsiderate asswipes taking the entire bench space for themselves to sleep on. JUST WOW. As if they were the only ones who didn’t manage to get a blink of sleep. LIA security personnel should tell these selfish people off! I know I should’ve complained but if I leave my seat, someone else will take it. Lucky for them I just let that slide that day but next time I definitely won’t.
Another thing I don’t like about LIA was the smoking area. Badly thought-out. Every time a smoker comes in or out of the smoking area, the lounge area just reeks of cigarette smoke. Like what’s the point then? Somebody better do something to fix that!
Boarding for Davao (“he-who-must-not-be-named” friend not included). Surprised to see a small plane.
Touchdown from Davao. Surprised to see a big plane.
I still stand by my opinion about their great baggage handling service. My suitcase is still in a good condition thus makes a happy me.
When it was time to look for a shuttle… I spotted LAX. LAX is short for Laguindingan Airport Express. Their pick-up and drop-off point is located outside Seda Hotel. Fare is 249 per head. For contact numbers and more details read here. For people bound to CDO from the LIA, you’ll find that link very useful as it includes a list of transport services and other helpful information.
But then we’re not bound for CDO, so we took a different shuttle (which I wasn’t able to take a photo off since we were super busy tugging our things). And to drop us off along the highway, together with other people, we were charged 25 pesos each.
And voila, this was our stop! THANK YOU LIA for your pre-mature opening and lack of preparedness! No waiting shed, chairs, whatsoever. I DEMAND a shuttle terminal/bus stop here with an air-conditioned lounge area plus free WiFi access; and no, that is not too much to ask!
More than an hour has passed since and we were STILL standing and waiting here for a bus to ride. Buses that passed by were either already full or there just wasn’t enough room for the both of us anymore. No luck. Obviously, my patience was running thin at this point.
But thank heavens a van driver (who did not intend to go to Iligan) drove us home along with some other people bound for Iligan. We were only charged 85 pesos each. Real good bargain that one.
If you’re bound for CDO, you barely have anything to worry about since shuttles like LAX are readily available. But if you’re bound for Iligan, it is HIGHLY recommended that to have a “sundo”, lest you want to suffer like we did.
I know this vitriolic post is getting very long already and so I have to abruptly end it as writing this has drained all of my energy.
With all that said, I’m just glad we came home in one piece and survived LIA!