The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP)-Kalibo announced that direct international flights at the airport resumed when an Air Seoul flight from Incheon, South Korea landed Friday night.
“Hala Bira! and a warm welcome back!” CAAP-Kalibo said in its official Facebook page.
Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores initiated as early as last December the proposed resumption of international flights at Kalibo Airport. But the threat of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 got in the way.
Nothing also happened last Feb. 10 when the national government allowed fully vaccinated international tourists to visit the country.
Foreign tourists who want to go to Boracay Island in Malay still need to fly to Manila and take a connecting flight to Kalibo Airport.
Direct international flights are seen to bring in more tourists from South Korea which are among the top foreign visitors at the country’s most popular beach destination.
Only 2,439 foreign tourists visited Boracay from June 1 to 15.
Aside from South Korea, there were also direct flights from China and Taiwan prior to the pandemic that started in March 2020.