Valte advises airline passengers to fight for their rights

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang urged airline passengers Saturday to know their rights and fight for them as well following the chaotic Christmas Day at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3 where thousands of passengers had to deal with delayed or canceled flights and overly long queues.

Palace spokeswoman Abigail Valte encouraged the passengers to familiarize themselves with their rights.

A summary of the Air Passenger Bill of Rights is available on the government’s official website, https://www.gov.ph/summary-of-the-rights-of-air-passengers/,

Valte said.

NAIA 3. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

“It is like a short guide for us to know what we should do when things like this situation happens,” Valte said. “We have to know our rights as passengers when our flights are delayed, our flights are rebooked, what are our entitlements. It is in our Official Gazette website.”

Valte said the Civil Aeronautics Board has so far received 14 complaints from irate passengers since Dec. 23.

“You might wonder why there are only 14 complaints but with so many (incidents) that happened this December… We have been monitoring since Dec. 23 and the other complaints are coming in,” she said.

At any rate, Valte said, there would be a meeting on Monday to “discuss the complaints together with the CAB and the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications).”

The CAB is investigating what happened, Valte said.

Thousands of passengers, mostly of Cebu Pacific Air, either missed their flights, were delayed or got bumped off.

They also complained of lack of personnel manning the airline counters and there were also no CAB officials to competently explain the chaotic situation.