MANILA — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Tuesday announced the cancelation of eight international flights originally scheduled for June 10-12, as the carrier was not given the arrival slots at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
In an advisory, PAL said authorities were not able to give the airline the slots, “because of unavoidable constraints in quarantine processing capacity in Manila”.
The canceled flights are:
June 10 – PR102/103 Manila-Los Angeles-Manila; PR104/105 Manila-San Franciso-Manila; and PR116/117 Manila-Vancouver-Manila
June 11 – PR126 Manila-New York
June 12 – PR127 New York-Manila
The carrier said it plans to operate flight PR102 Manila-Los Angeles on June 11 and is also working on mounting the PR103 flight from Los Angeles to Cebu instead of Manila, with arrival date on June 13. Arrangements are still being done for flight PR103 to land in Cebu.
If this would push through, passengers would undergo the mandatory testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in Cebu and would need to undergo quarantine in a Department of Health-accredited hotel. The cost of hotel accommodation will be shouldered by the passenger.
Once passengers get a negative test result, PAL said it would fly them to Manila for free.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, PAL was able to mount two international flights via Manila.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said flight PR8102 Manila-Los Angeles-Bridgetown was a flight to pick up Filipino seafarers in Barbados; while flight PR8728 Manila-Goa, India was a repatriation flight for stranded Indian nationals.
Six PAL domestic flights were also mounted on Tuesday. These flights were between Cebu and Davao, Manila and Cagayan De Oro, and Manila and Pagadian.
Villaluna added that four sweeper flights between Manila and Cebu, and Bacolod, were also scheduled on Tuesday.
Sweeper flights are being carried out to ferry stranded individuals, not just foreign nationals.
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