PAL expects improved flight scheduling amid restrictions

MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) expects to see a marked improvement in the reliability of its domestic schedules in the coming weeks.

The return of PAL’s  commercial flights was met with turbulence due to national and provincial government restrictions.

With more local government units opening their borders to travelers and finetuning requirements, PAL said this could bring back stability in its domestic schedules.

“Efforts by PAL together with our government officials will lead to more stable and frequent schedules.  We are also hopeful that these actions will increase capacity to allow more of our fellow Filipinos to come back to the country,” the airline said.

“We will continue working closely with the authorities, to try and save as many scheduled flights, to secure more certainty and avoid last-minute changes, and to keep exploring alternative solutions to serve our passengers better,” it said.

PAL and other local carriers were allowed to resume their regular commercial flights early this month after a more than two-month suspension.

However, evolving national and provincial government restrictions and limitations designed to protect citizens from COVID-19 have required frequent changes and resulted in flight cancellations.

For domestic travel, various local government requirements have been put in place that require all airlines to coordinate their schedules based on the specific needs of each province.

Meanwhile, international commercial arrivals are still limited by the IATF to a maximum of 600 passengers per day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

PAL said these limits are being shared across the three Filipino and 22 foreign airlines that fly into the Philippines.

“Overall, these limits and requirements can change on a day to day basis depending on circumstances as well as the community quarantine situation,” it said.