PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– The City government of Puerto Princesa has requested airline managements and local airport authorities to adjust the flight schedules, downshifting to only three times per week.
Dr. Dean Palanca, city incident commander and assistant City Health Officer, said the move was to “systematically manage” the influx of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returnees in the city.
“We have [so] limited personnel and quarantine facilities to systematically manage the influx of arriving LSIs and OFW,” Palanca noted.
From an earlier released flight schedule, the new request was limited to Mondays for Cebu Pacific, Wednesdays for Philippine Airlines, and Fridays for Air Asia.
Palanca also sought to limit the carrying capacity to only 120 passengers per flight. The urgent request manifested an effectivity date set on June 19.
“This initiative is crucial to support our measures to contain and mitigate the spread of the pandemic in our locality,” Palanca added.
A total of 2,006 returnees were expected by the city government, based on an earlier report from the City Tourism Office (CTO).
As of Monday, 526 returnees and repatriates have arrived in the City from Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
The airline managements have yet to respond to the request.