Date : To : The Department Of Immigration Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila: Fill & Download for Free

TL;DR: Soetta wins quite far from NAIA (especially its terminal 3)I have been flying to and from both airports, but as my experience with NAIA was mainly limited to terminal 1 and 2 (T2 being Philippine’s main hub), I limited the scope for Soetta to terminal 2 and 3 (T3 being Garuda’s main hub). This answer is partially developed from my answer to this question: How is Ninoy Aquino International Airport compared to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport of Makassar, Kualanamu International Airport of Medan and Ngurah Rai International Airport of Bali?Ninoy Aquino International AirportNAIA has 4 terminals (1, 2, 3, 4), each operated by different carriers, and as noted by it would be a pain to transfer between terminals as they are separated as though they are separate airports happening to share the same runways.Background: I arrived at NAIA terminal 3 twice for my flights by Cebu Pacific, departed from NAIA terminal 1 once for my flight by Tigerair (now Scoot), and both departed and arrived around 5 times for my flights by Philippine Airlines at NAIA terminal 2; all of them in economy class.Terminal 1 is used only for international flights, and based on my trip from there to Singapore, it looked very well past its due, even more so than Jakarta Soekarno Hatta terminal 2. Too bad I didn’t take any photo of it, but here are some for comparison (source: Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Manila to Seoul in Economy)Terminal 3 is newer than all other terminals and I had the chance to arrive to Manila there. It was more comfortable than the other terminals, though at the end of the day it’s almost as chaotic as the other terminals and its finishing looked a bit cheap as well - think of it as an improved terminal 2, and being built between Soetta’s terminal 2 and 3 also rated in between both of them.Terminal 2 is used only by Philippine Airlines, and as I mostly traveled with them on my trips to the Philippines I happen to have some photos of the terminal. While it is newer than terminal 1, the airport looked very dull and sterile, besides queues tend to be quite long, let it be for check-in, airport fee, immigration, or security. It is not the best airport to kill time either as there were very few shops around, instead by necessity as the traffic in Manila isn’t that smooth. I’ll let the photos speak for itself:Its transit area is not that big, making it more walkable, besides there was no maze of shops I needed to face.Soekarno Hatta International Airport - Terminal 2D/EThe best comparison to Ninoy Aquino International Airport would be with Soekarno Hatta’s terminal 2D/E, being built > 20 years ago. I would say this terminal is slightly better than NAIA terminal 1/2.Background: I flew to/from there on various occasions, all in economy class except on one occasion when I arrived there in business class.The arrival area required a long walk to go to the immigration, which fortunately sports some automated gates.Baggage claim was dingy, quite much like in NAIA terminal 2.Taking a car booked by ride-hailing application requires walking further out of the airport terminal to the pick-up area.The public area is quite wide and far more decent than the one at NAIA.Check-in area felt very Indonesian, although at the same time quite dated (queue was more to do with Lion Air group being so stingy with counter staffs rather than the airport being generally very inefficient).Immigration features automated gates, which happened to work.Stores were adequate (but not to be compared with SIN), although they were closed for the early morning flights.Waiting room looked basic yet very consistent with other parts of the terminal - admittedly still slightly better than NAIA terminal 1.Soekarno Hatta International Airport - Terminal 3This is Soekarno Hatta’s newest terminal, having been opened just last year. The finishing may look quite cheap (I would even agree that terminal 2 looked more refined), but it’s still a far leap from the terminal 2. Currently this terminal serves as Garuda’s global hub as well as well as home to several other SkyTeam carriers in Jakarta.Background: I flew from there to Bandar Lampung and Singapore by Garuda, both of them in economy class, which means there is no review for the arrival area.Drop-off area was very quiet as it’s quite long.Typical on an Indonesian airport, we needed to pass preliminary security check before entering the public check-in area.The check-in counters for Garuda’s international flights were quite quiet as well even on daytime.The domestic check-in area also offers self check-in, although the boarding pass looks flimsy.Even the toilet also looked in good condition.This has to be the best meal offer on the terminal (or even airport), located in the public area: semi-buffet shabu-shabu starting from just under Rp80.000 / US$6 after taxes and service charge.Security was also not crowded.Their immigration area also has several automated gates installed, although I did not take any photo.Its transit area feature several kinds of seats and looked bright - consider it as the much more refined version of NAIA terminal 2.Inside the transit area they don’t have shower cubicles, instead they have proper bathrooms available free of charge (minus toiletries and towel, of course, plus only cold water was available).Quite a large number of shops are also available between the walkway and the gates.Bonus: some photos of the arrival area from a fellow Quoran David Orlando KurniawanVerdictNAIA terminal 1 and 2 can be quite comparable to Soekarno Hatta’s terminal 2, however Soekarno Hatta’s terminal 3, despite not being as refined as other airports in the region, is actually leaps above even NAIA terminal 3.Roy Yu also noticed Soekarno Hatta being very well connected, and while that is true to some extent, its international destinations are still quite few compared to other major airports.Read the reviews:Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Manila to Seoul in Economy (most likely not written by a Quora user)Review of Garuda Indonesia flight from Singapore to Jakarta in Economy (by David Orlando Kurniawan; Jakarta CGK terminal 3 arrival)Review of Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Singapore in Economy (by me; Jakarta CGK terminal 3 international departure)Review of Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Bandar Lampung in Economy (by me; Jakarta CGK terminal 3 domestic departure)Review of Jetstar Asia Airways flight from Singapore to Jakarta in Economy (by me; Jakarta CGK terminal 2 international arrival)Review of Lion Mentari Airlines flight from Jakarta to Singapore in Economy(by me; Jakarta CGK terminal 2 international departure)

TL;DR: It’s not the best one around, but it’s not a fair comparison.One doesn’t simply put airports randomly around for comparison - Makassar’s new terminal was already operational when I went there on 2008 while Medan’s new airports was opened on 2013 and Denpasar’s new international terminal was open around that date.Ninoy Aquino International AirportNAIA has 4 terminals (1, 2, 3, 4), each operated by different carriers, and as noted by Suhadi Herman it would be a pain to transfer between terminals as they are separated as though they are separate airports happening to share the same runways.Background: I arrived at NAIA terminal 3 twice for my flights by Cebu Pacific, departed from NAIA terminal 1 once for my flight by Tigerair (now Scoot), and both departed and arrived around 5 times for my flights by Philippine Airlines; all of them are in economy class.Terminal 1 is used only for international flights, and based on my trip from there to Singapore, it looked very well past its due, even more so than Jakarta Soekarno Hatta terminal 2 (too bad I didn’t take any photo of it).Terminal 3 is newer than all other terminals and I had the chance to arrive to Manila there. It was more comfortable than the other terminals, though at the end of the day it’s almost as chaotic as the other terminals and its finishing looked a bit cheap as well - think of it as an improved terminal 2.Terminal 2 is used only by Philippine Airlines, and as I mostly traveled with them on my trips to the Philippines I happen to have some photos of the terminal. While it is newer than terminal 1, the airport looked very dull and sterile, besides queues tend to be quite long, let it be for check-in, airport fee, immigration, or security. It is not the best airport to kill time either as there were very few shops around, instead by necessity as the traffic in Manila isn’t that smooth. I’ll let the photos speak for itself:Its transit area is not that big, making it more walkable, besides there was no maze of shops I needed to face.The airport on overall didn’t leave me with especially good impressions even the smaller airport in Cebu worked better for me with its more reasonable array of shops (including its famous suckling pig).Hasanuddin International AirportI was not especially interested on airports that time (think of perhaps < 5 photos, if any, compared with > 50 photos on all my recent flights), but I remembered I flew to/from there on 2008 on the now defunct Merpati fo a competition. It looked quite much like NAIA terminal 2, although best I could tell the airport looked a bit dull inside and didn’t offer that much amenities although as air travel was not nearly as popular as it is now the processes were quite smooth.Some views from Gabriele Kembuan or Wirawan Winarto would be most helpful in this case, but here is one photo of the waiting area from Wikipedia:Kuala Namu International AirportHaven’t got the chance to fly to/from there - would love to see how much they have improved compared with their now closed Polonia airport. However, they have been lauded as one of the best airports in Indonesia and stands as the sole airport in Indonesia with proper airport train service.Here are some photos from a review of a SilkAir flight from Kualanamu to Singapore - read here: Review of SilkAir flight from Medan to Singapore in Economy (not written by me)Ngurah Rai International Airport - International TerminalOne of my first visits to the airport was when I flew to Australia using the now defunct (again) Australian Airlines when I was still actually cute. However, instead of viewing the airport on that time I would use my past flights on the new international terminals instead.Background: I flew between Singapore and Denpasar on KLM’s business class, one of the best for the Indonesia to Singapore route and have it written as proper reports, so this part may be very lengthy.The arrival immigration hall felt too void of life and too sparsely filled - at least I got away with it thanks to the automated immigration gates.They didn’t seem to give a thought for priority bags - even though my bag is tagged as such it didn’t arrive among the earliest. Besides, the bags falling into the carousel made for a horrifying view.The airport’s drop-off area felt like NAIA terminal 3, just slightly better - at least this was miles above the chaotic pick-up area.The public area still showed some life - not as much as Singapore Changi’s terminal 3 basement 2, but still a passable one.Check-in was acceptable, however unlike other major airports no early check-in facility was available (not that they have it in Jakarta Soekarno Hatta either anyway)Security and immigration at that time were reasonably fast, even though they had no priority lane om immigration (I used the automated gate again anyway, which was still unpopular among Indonesians).The best part of the airport must be the Garuda Indonesia lounge - they may not be as good as other premium airlines’ at their hubs, but for an airport lounge in Indonesia it was above average as their interior is quite consistent and comfortable, plus they offer a decent array of foods and beverages (including wine, which even though the ones on offer were basic it’s already quite rare in Indonesia). Hospitable service was included, typical of Garuda Indonesia.On the downside, walking to the gate requires navigating a long maze of shops.Gates were also carpeted, although the further gates could be a pain to walk to - Ninoy Aquino’s terminal 2 was much smaller, which therefore made it more walkable.VerdictNinoy Aquino is unfortunately still quite behind some of Indonesia’s airports as mentioned, although I found it would be best compared with Jakarta Soekarno Hatta due to its passenger capacity - read here: Eric Valega Prawirodidjojo's answer to How is Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Manila compared to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport of Jakarta?I would rate it this way: Manila MNL < Makassar UPG < Medan KNO <= Denpasar DPS.Read the reviews:Review of SilkAir flight from Medan to Singapore in Economy (not by a Quora user)Review of KLM flight from Denpasar to Singapore in Business (by me; Denpasar DPS international terminal)Review of Garuda Indonesia flight from Denpasar to Ende-Flores Island in Economy (by David Orlando Kurniawan; Denpasar DPS domestic terminal)Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Manila to Seoul in Economy (not by a Quora user; Manila MNL terminal 1)