Eastern Samar’s Evardone: Flight discontinued in 2019 due to lack of passengers

BORONGAN CITY, Eastern Samar — Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone has clarified why this city discontinued flights in 2019.

According to him, the flights were discontinued three years ago due to the lack of passengers availing the chartered flights with airline firm Leading Edge Air Services Corporation.

Evardone also said in a statement sent to Inquirer on Wednesday that the discontinued flights had nothing to do with his assumption as governor.

“The operations of the local airline stopped even before (former governor Marcelo “Dindo”) Picardal lost in the elections. It stopped for lack of commercial traffic or passengers,” he said.

FILE PHOTO: Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

Last week, the Borongan City Airport got the green light from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to accept flights operated by major airline companies and to seek potential commercial airline partners.

According to Evardone, he initiated similar flights during his first term as governor of Eastern Samar before he was elected to Congress.

However, it was also stopped due to a lack of passengers.

“The province at that time even subsidized the fares just to jumpstart the operations, but still there were no passengers” Evardone said.