BI braces for spike in holiday arrivals, departures

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is gearing up for a surge of over 110,000 travelers during the holiday season, anticipating a rise in both arrivals and departures compared to previous years.

“We are expecting the numbers to further increase this year and we believe that it will now exceed prepandemic numbers,” Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said, noting average daily arrivals of 55,000 and 47,000 departures in December 2019.

Last year, weekend arrivals during the Christmas season averaged more than 53,000 daily while departures were around 43,000.

READ: Caap: Airports ready for holiday arrivals, departures

Viado said the BI has implemented measures, including denials of leave applications for front-line officers during the peak season, to maintain full deployment.

“We have ramped up our operations at major international airports, with additional personnel to maintain a smooth flow of passengers,” he added.

Since October, airlines have been predicting a significant hike in operations because of increased flight bookings.

Plane seats sold

AirAsia Philippines said that it had sold over 50,000 seats just for passengers traveling this Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, anticipating more bookings in the coming week.

Most of the booked flights were to Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, Tacloban, Puerto Princesa and Iloilo for local destinations. For overseas, the top destinations were Taipei, Incheon, Narita and Bangkok.

For Christmas and New Year bookings, the airline said over half a million seats were already purchased. Bulk or 70 percent were for local destinations, such as Boracay, Bohol, Tacloban, Puerto Princesa and Roxas. The remaining were tickets for flights to Taipei, Narita, Incheon, Osaka and Bangkok. —PNA