Inbound international flights at NAIA to resume on Monday

Starting on Monday, all inbound international chartered and commercial flights will be allowed to land at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on their assigned days.

In a notice to airmen (Notam) released on Saturday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said inbound international chartered flights would only be allowed to land on Mondays and Thursdays, provided they secure a clearance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Caap for slotting purposes.

Commercial flights

On the other hand, scheduled inbound international commercial flights would be allowed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, provided they secure approval from CAAP 48 hours before the scheduled departure from the airport of origin for the necessary slotting and rescheduling of flights in order to subscribe to the 400-passengers-per-day capacity of NAIA.

Naia is currently on limited operations due the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The CAAP said en route flights experiencing emergency, ferry flights/cargo flights, air ambulance and medical supplies flights, government/military flights, weather mitigation flights, maintenance flights, and outbound ferry flights/cargo flights with passengers, as authorized, would be unrestricted and would not be covered by the Notam.

The restrictions, which will last a month, or until June 10, would be implemented at Naia only, as other international airports in the country would have their separate restrictions, the CAAP said.

‘Passengerless’ planes

The Department of Transportation, upon the recommendation of the National Task Force on COVID-19 Response, earlier suspended inbound international commercial passenger flights at Naia for a week as various agencies rushed arrangements to test, quarantine and accommodate Filipinos arriving from abroad, mostly overseas Filipino workers displaced by the pandemic.

This compelled foreign airlines to fly in “passengerless” planes to Naia to fetch outbound customers.

Under the rules earlier set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the only persons allowed to fly into the country from abroad are Filipino citizens, their immediate family members, aliens with Philippine permanent residency visas, and foreign diplomats.