288 British on PAL mercy flights
By Ariel Fernandez
A total of 288 British nationals flew to London on Philippine Airlines’ two special flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 on Tuesday.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said that part of the 288 Britons were picked up at Mactan International Airport for their flight to London via Manila while the others who were stranded in Manila departed for London on board PR 720
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines announced on Tuesday its plans to resume some international and domestic flights on selected routes in the coming weeks.
Villaluna said that these plans are highly subject to change, depending on a number of crucial factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These factors include the duration of enhanced community quarantine currently imposed by the Philippine government, , the status of relevant travel bans and restrictions imposed by various governments and their effect on passenger demand, and above all on the public health and safety situation in each of the cities and countries that PAL serves,” Villaluna said.
She added that PAL will not operate any international routes from April 15 to 30, 2020 bit will continue to consider operating ad hoc special flights to retrieve stranded passengers as well as cargo flights to keep intact critical supply chains in the country and within the Asia-Pacific region.
“We are setting plans to operate a reduced number of weekly flights on our routes to Japan, the USA, Canada, Guam, Australia, the U.K., Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, Saudi Arabia, and Korea from May 1 to 31 this year,” Villaluna added.
“We will announce the list of operating flights as soon as possible, in an updated advisory, once the details are finalized. However, we shall not be operating any flights to and from the following international destinations for the month of May: Auckland, New York JFK, Dubai, Doha, Perth, Melbourne, Port Moresby, and Sapporo. All flights on these routes have been cancelled for the month of May,” she said.