LOCAL airlines on Wednesday announced domestic and international flight operations will remain suspended until May 31 in compliance with the implementation of a modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and parts of the country to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Metro Manila, Laguna and Cebu City remains under a modified ECQ, while the rest of the country have been placed under relaxed quarantine regulations.
The country’s three local airlines — Cebu Air Inc., Philippine Air Asia and Philippine Airlines — said all their domestic flights remain suspended, while international flights are limited to inbound flights for returning overseas Filipinos.
In an advisory, Cebu Air Inc. said all Cebu Pacific and Cebgo domestic and international flights remain canceled from May 16 to 31, 2020.
Cebu Air said that once community quarantines are lifted, affected passengers can re-book their flights to other travel dates within three months without charge, charge the full cost of the ticket in a travel fund valid for one year, or claim full ticket refunds.
Low cost carrier Philippine AirAsia said all of its domestic and international Z2 flights remain suspended until May 31.
“All affected guests will be promptly notified via email or SMS. AirAsia strongly encourages guests to update their contact details using the ‘My Bookings’ feature on airasia.com to ensure that they receive timely notifications,” it said in an advisory.
AirAsia said guests with flight bookings made on or before March 12 with departure dates between March 23 and July 23 have two options: re-book to any new travel date before October 31, 2020 on the same route for an unlimited number of times without any additional cost subject to seat availability, or retain the value of the flight booking in the guest’s AirAsia BIG Member account for future travel.
On the other hand, PAL said all domestic flights to or from hubs in Manila, Cebu and Clark are canceled up to May 31.
“We are evaluating the possibility of flying international routes and/or domestic routes to and from our Davao hub, in coordination with concerned government authorities. We will announce any planned flights once these are finalized,” it also said.
PAL said it plans to reduce the number of its weekly flights on most domestic routes and on selected international routes by June 1, which would depend on three factors: community quarantine restrictions, travel bans imposed by various governments and their impact on passenger demand, and public health and safety situation.
“We will announce the list of operating flights and routes for June 2020 once the details are finalized,” PAL said.
Meanwhile, inbound international flights for overseas Filipinos have been allowed by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
In an advisory, the CAAP said that from May 11 to June 10, incoming international chartered flights will be allowed to land at terminals 1 and 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) only on Monday and Thursdays. They should first secure clearances from the Department of Foreign Affairs and CAAP for slotting purposes.
It added emergency en route flights, ferry flights/cargo flights, air ambulance and medical supplies flights, government/military flights, weather mitigation flights, maintenance flights, and outbound ferry flights/cargo flights with passengers, as authorized, will remain unrestricted.
The CAAP also said domestic flights going to and coming from provinces and cities under general community quarantine (GCQ), subject to airport clearances and flight plan approvals and in line with IATF guidelines, are now allowed
