AFP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Cebu Pacific airlines launched humanitarian flights on Tuesday to pick up stranded passengers in supertyphoon-battered Tacloban city,
Four Tacloban flights bound for Cebu will be provided by Cebu Pacific commercial planes carrying passengers who have been left stranded in the Leyte province since monster typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) smashed Tacloban and other central Visayas provinces on Friday.
However, the Daniel Z. Romualdez Tacloban domestic airport will remain closed for commercial flights as it could only accommodate humanitarian flights utilizing turbo-prop engine aircraft.
“With no electricity and communications in Tacloban, guests are manually accommodated on these humanitarian flights, on first-come, first served basis. Priority is being given to Cebu Pacific ticket holders from November 7 to 25,” Cebu Pacific said in its latest advisory.
“CEB’s Tacloban team is doing its best to accommodate guests in an orderly manner, considering the large number of people at the airport,” it added.
The following are pre-booked commercial flights that have been canceled:
5J428/429 Cebu-Tacloban-Cebu
5J426/427 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
5J651/652 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
5J659/660 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
5J653/654 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
5J657/658 Manila-Tacloban-Manila
In another Yolanda-affected area, Busuanga airport in Palawan went back to normal operations.
Transporting stranded tourists in Coron, Palawan, Cebu Pacific said it already operated on Tuesday three Busuanga to Manila flights and one Busuanga heading to Cebu flight.
Meanwhile, rains whipped up by tropical depression “Zoraida” hampered some domestic flights due to poor visibility.
These were:
5J785/786 Manila-Butuan-Manila
5J887/888 Manila-Cotabato-Manila
5J625/626 Manila-Dumaguete-Manila
5J963/964 Manila-Davao-Manila
5J215/216 Cagayan de Oro-Davao-Cagayan de Oro
5J593/594 Cebu-Davao-Cebu
5J771/772 Manila-Pagadian-Manila
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