Hello All,

I am planning a trip to Cebu to see my sweetie in September and I am wonder how long it take to clear customs in Manila. Just want to make sure I leave enough time to catch my connecting flight to Cebu.

Thanks,
Bryan

it never took me more than 45 minutes from the time i walked off the plane until i was outside of the airport.

My fiancee also lives in Cebu and I flew into Manila back in April - customs took maybe 5 minutes. It depends on what you're bringing (fresh fruits or plants), also there's dollar limit on what you can be bringing, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Are you flying PAL from Manila to Cebu? If so, you know that it's at a different airport? You'll need to catch a taxi and get over there. The domestic airport is in different location from the international airport. That will slow you down more than anything. PM me if you need help scheduling your domestic flight time.

I just did that in June and yes it's a problem. I would allow at least 1 to 1.5 hours to clear immigration, get your bags, and get through customs. 2 hours is better. If you only have carry on bags or your bags are checked through to Cebu, then you might be able to get away with less, but keep in mind that if you miss your flight you're likely to get stuck in Manila overnight.

But then you need to make your connecting flight. It depends on what airlines you are on. If you are on Philippine Airlines to Cebu City, it's easier as Philippine Airlines domestic flights use the terminal adjacent to the International terminal. However, if you are on Cebu Pacific Air to Cebu, then it takes a little longer as you need to get to the domestic terminal (terminal 3, it sucks!) to get your Cebu Pacific flight. You could walk it I suppose but I took a taxi.

Personally I wouldn't book anything less than a 2.5 hour international-domestic connection in Manila (it's a real zoo) for inbound and 2 hours for outbound. I went to Cagayan deOro city but it's the same problem for your connection to Cebu.

Customs was a breeze. From the time I exited the plane, I was out in about 22 minutes. It was waiting on my darn luggage that took about 20 minutes. It appears that cardboard boxes shipped as luggage get first priority in the baggage claim at MNL. LOL! You will see...

i guess i shud add that i always arrived there either late at night or very early (4 a.m.), and the airport wasn't very busy, daytime might b a diff story

I have been through Manila 6 times now. The shortest time from walking off the airplane to walking out the door was 45 minutes. The longest was 1.5 hours. It all depends on how many flights arrive at the same time. Getting through immigration is the real hassle. Takes forever sometimes. Customs is just a walk-through after getting your bags.

Is your connecting flight part of the entire flight itinerary where your luggages won't be checked out until you get to Cebu?...then you shouldn't worry about the time in between. Your travel agent/airline already took that into account when they booked you (I would think so.) It might be an issue if Manila-Cebu was purchased separately and under a different carrier. If that's the case, try to get at least 2 hours in between arrival of US flight and departure of Manila-Cebu. That's mostly due to the airport locations of different carriers. Just FYI, there are flights going out to Cebu from Manila almost every hour on a daily basis...(through PAL or Cebu Pacific or other smaller carriers) so getting stuck there overnight due to lack of flights is least likely to happen.

I went to Cebu in March. But I didn't stop in Manila. Customs is usually easy. Not much time at all. Have a good time!!

For my two trips through MNL, I made it through immigration and customs in less then 30 minutes. Now, leaving through MNL is another story all together. If you travel light and don't check bags you'll have no problems. Getting bags checked and then picked-up in the RP is an extremely painful excercise in patience. Of course, you may have to take a cab or shuttle to the domestic terminal to catch your flight to Cebu, that could take a bunch of time. I'd say plan on that taking you AT LEAST an hour, if not two.

You can't count on the travel agents/airlines booking a connection with enough time. On more than one occasion I've have them try to give me flights with connections that were way to short. It's not going to be their problem when you miss your connection, so they don't really care.