Passengers of Philippine Airlines (PAL) have been stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 on Monday due to the cancelation of at least 22 domestic flights and two international flights.
“Our airport team set up a tent where stranded passengers can stay as they wait their turn to enter the PAL ticketing office in NAIA. Per Airport Services, water and snacks were given,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna told reporters.
Villaluna added that many of PAL’s cabin crew called in sick, compelling the airline to cancel a combination of domestic and international flights, she said.
PAL earlier issued an advisory regarding flight cancellations for January 9 to 16. Passengers of those flights were notified via email, Villaluna said.
“The people in the tent are passengers of cancellations made just today, a few hours before the flights, due to crew unavailability,” she said.
The following flights were canceled on Monday:
PR 2519/2520 Manila-Cagayan de Oro-Manila
PR 2861/2862 Manila-Cebu-Manila
PR 2965/2966 Manila-Busuanga (Coron)-Manila
PR 2981/2982 and PR 2985/2986 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
PR 2037/2038 Manila-Caticlan-Manila
PR 2143/2144 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
PR 2205/2206 Manila-Roxas-Manila
PR 2783/2784 Manila-Pagadian-Manila
PR 2959/2960 Manila-Cotabato-Manila
PR 2938/2939 Manila-Butuan-Manila
PR 2557/2558 Manila-Dipolog-Manila
PR 422/421 Manila-Tokyo Haneda-Manila
In an advisory issued on Sunday night, PAL said it is experiencing challenges in sustaining operations due to the increasing number of front-line and support personnel who are absent because of isolation requirements.
“We are taking the precaution of canceling a number of PAL flights, even as our PAL teams do all we can to maintain as many other flights as possible, process all passenger requests and relieve the longer call waiting times and ticket office queues,” it said.
Affected passengers may convert their ticket to travel credits equivalent to the unused base fare, or refund their ticket excluding the ticketing service charge.
They can also rebook or reroute their ticket to another flight within 60 days from the original flight schedule.
Source: Philippines News Agency
