An estimate of the busiest times at each security and immigration line through the day. A taller line means more passengers arrive at once, not a longer wait.
ShowingSun 12:00 AM to Mon 12:00 AM
Over this 24-hour window, roughly 65,100 passengers pass through NAIA's departure checkpoints. The heaviest is T3 Domestic Security, hitting its peak around 3:50 AM.
Every line below shares the same vertical scale, so heights compare directly. The tallest rush is about 270 people arriving every 10 minutes.
A simulation counts every departure out of Manila on the day and estimates passengers per flight from the aircraft type, assuming each fills to 85% of its seats (180 seats when the aircraft is unknown). Those passengers are spread across the hours before departure using an arrival curve: international travellers arrive heaviest about 2 hours before their flight, domestic about 90 minutes before.
It reflects demand walking up to each line, not how long the queue takes to clear. The window covers 24 hours and rolls forward at noon and midnight, so it always shows the hours ahead rather than a day that is mostly spent.
ByMikko Gozalo, the person behind Better NAIA. He is a data scientist by day and loves tinkering with websites at night.