THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has fielded more personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other international airports around the country to cope with passenger traffic which has ballooned by as much as 700 percent because of the Christmas and New Year holiday rush.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said on Friday that the BI Port Operations Division chief, Carlos Capulong, had reported that his personnel were processing around 35,000 arrivals and 29,000 departures a day during the holiday season, compared to only 4,000 to 5,000 daily arrivals several months back.