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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Airlines (PAL) over the weekend clarified that the cancellation of a flight to Vancouver, Canada was not caused by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s trip to Davos, Switzerland.
PAL issued the statement after a social media user tweeted that “PAL had to cancel its 777 flight to Vancouver today, because Junior commandeered it for his trip to Switzerland.”
“Philippine Airlines (PAL) wishes to clarify a social media post alleging that a PAL aircraft was reassigned to the Presidential Charter flight for Davos, causing the cancellation of today’s Manila – Vancouver flight,” the airline said on Sunday.
“The Manila – Vancouver flight originally slated to depart Sunday, 15 January 2023 was cancelled last Friday, 13 January 2023 due to an aircraft situation (tech issue),” it added.
The B777 aircraft assigned to the Vancouver flight with registry RP-C7773, is “currently grounded for maintenance.”
The assigned aircraft for the presidential flight, PAL said, was another B-777 with a different registry number.
“Charter arrangements for this aircraft was made weeks ago and DID NOT cause the Manila – Vancouver flight cancellation,” PAL said.
The Twitter user claimed that the flight crew was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement for the first time in the airline’s history.