400 air passengers miss holiday trips

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Some 400 passengers were unable to make it to their Christmas holiday vacation after bad weather forced the cancellation of two flights to Basco, Batanes and Naga City at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Tuesday.

PAL Express flight 2P-084, which was supposed to leave NAIA Terminal 3 at 6 a.m., was the first to be cancelled.

Cebu Pacific flight 5J-521 to Naga, which was supposed to leave Terminal 3 at 9:30 a.m. was also cancelled.  At press time, some passengers of the flight were still at the terminal hoping to get a new booking later in the day.

The weather in Naga had apparently cleared because the next Cebu Pacific flight to the city, 5J-523, left on time at around 12:50 p.m.

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) advised passengers to come to their flights early because of anticipated heavy traffic on roads leading to the airport.  Figures released by the MIAA operations center said arriving and departing passengers at Terminal 3 numbered between 20,000 to 30,000 since the onset of the holiday season.

The MIAA has also instituted stricter security efforts following the shooting incident at Terminal 3 last week, where a mayor and his wife were assassinated by gunmen.