Philippine airlines hit by double whammy of Omicron, Odette

MANILA, Philippines — Local airlines have been hit by a double whammy just when they are expecting to take off with the expected surge in demand due to the peak holiday season.

Philippine carriers have ramped up their flights at the onset of the Christmas peak season to serve the high demand from overseas Filipinos who want to reunite with their loved ones for the holidays.

However, the threat of the new Omicron variant emerged, and just very recently, Typhoon Odette devastated various areas in Visayas and Mindanao, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) said it would be compelled to adjust schedules and cancel certain international flights in the next few days due to government-imposed restrictions on overseas arrivals at Manila airport, and the extended closure of typhoon-damaged Mactan Cebu airport.

PAL said concerns about Omicron have prompted the government to hold back from a planned increase in inbound flights and instead maintain a cap of 4,000 passenger arrivals per day to Manila for all airlines.

The airline’s share amounts to a little over a fourth of this total, or about 1,200 passengers per day, which it said is “insufficient” to cover its network of flights from at least 22 cities in the Middle East, North America, Asia and Australia.

PAL had appealed for a higher cap to accommodate the thousands of returning Filipinos and assured that all returning overseas Filipinos would have pre-arranged hotel bookings over and above the hotel blockings set for arriving OFWs by the Overseas Welfare Workers’ Administration (OWWA).

The flag carrier said it has no choice but to cancel certain flights to comply with the stricter limits on certain days.

It said an unplanned shortage in quarantine hotel rooms allotted for OFWs has limited the ability of OWWA to absorb arrivals from OFW-heavy countries.

“We seek the public’s understanding over this unfortunate situation.  We are a vital air bridge to bring families together, and we try to do all we can to fly our countrymen home, hence the flights we had arranged to serve their urgent travel needs,” PAL senior vice president and chief strategy and planning officer Dexter Lee said.

“However, we have to abide by the latest limits and we regret that this will prevent us from serving many travelers,” Lee said.

Lee said PAL maintains its appeal to allow more arrivals to address the need to bring home Filipinos at this special time of the year.

“We will do all we can to work with the government authorities, including assistance with quarantine hotel bookings, to achieve this.  Indeed, we are very grateful for the support that our government has extended in recent weeks, and we have made full use of alternate gateways in Subic, Davao, Cebu and Bohol to cater to the peak season arrivals,” he said.

Meanwhile, PAL said the closure of Cebu and Tagbilaran airports after Typhoon Odette has also limited its operational options, with flights from Los Angeles to Cebu last Dec. 16 and 17 cancelled as a result.

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific, for its part, said the flight cancellations due to the typhoon has affected over 25,000 passengers.

Cebu Pacific resumed domestic operations to and from Cebu on Dec. 19.

“However, given the conditions in Cebu, news from the ground is that power is intermittent, there’s water shortage, difficulty of passengers getting to the terminal, which also means difficulty of our own employees getting to the terminal. So we have had to reduce the number of flights to and from Cebu,” Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and customer experience Candice Iyog said.

“At least Cebu is already online. It’s just not yet stable so we need to get some stability for our schedule in Cebu and then build capacity from there,” Iyog said.