Airlines Offer Options to Travelers Amid Covid-19 Restrictions

Local airlines have offered options for passengers affected by flight cancelations due to domestic travel restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In an advisory on Friday, AirAsia Philippines announced that their guests could make voluntary changes to their travel plans at no cost.

All its international and domestic flights with bookings issued before March 12 and for travel until April 14, may either retain the ticket value to the loyalty account or change to a new travel date on the same route within 90 calendar days from the original flight time, subject to seat availability.

It also announced that all its domestic flights to and from Manila from March 15 to April 14 are canceled.

Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines also offered the same options as well as giving a refund for affected passengers.

“In view of the directive of the Philippine government canceling domestic air travel to and from Manila from March 15 to April 14, affected passengers may rebook their flight to a new travel date after April 14, with waiver of rebooking fee; refund the ticket cost with waiver of refund fee; or reroute their ticket on the same class, fare difference rules apply,” Philippine Airlines (PAL) spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a statement.

Earlier, Cebu Pacific also gave options to travelers, such as free rebooking (fare difference may apply), or putting the ticket value to a travel fund, should they decide to forego travel.

Both PAL and AirAsia Philippines noted that their flights to and from other airports outside of Metro Manila will continue to operate.

Data from the Manila International Airport Authority showed that NAIA had an average of 433 daily domestic flights in January, and 452 daily domestic flights in February.

The daily average number of domestic passengers at NAIA has decreased, from 70,931 in January, to 58,146 in February.

Community quarantine in the National Capital Region will begin on March 15.

Land, domestic air, and domestic sea travel to and from Metro Manila are suspended beginning March 15, and will end on April 14 “subject to the daily review by the inter-agency task force”.

The government on Thursday raised the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) alert to Code Red Sublevel 2 as the number of confirmed cases climbed to 52 with five deaths. (PNA)