More int’l flights to Cebu recorded – airport execs

The Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) has been receiving more international passengers daily. (DALE ISRAEL/INQUIRER VISAYAS)

CEBU CITY — More international flights are coming back to Cebu, especially from airlines coming from South Korea and other Asia-Pacific carriers.

Airport officials said that as of June, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) received an average of 1,800 international passenger arrivals daily.

At one particular day in mid June, passenger arrival even reached 2,300, said Ricia Montejo, terminal operations head of the GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation.

Montejo said the numbers are steadily rising although these figures are just 10 to 12 percent of the average daily arrivals before the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the height of the pandemic, international arrivals were only a little over a hundred individuals.

Mactan Airline Operators Council (MAOC) Vice Chairman Angelo Gabutina is also optimistic the numbers will further increase before the end of the year as more carriers restore their flights to Cebu.

Those that have already resumed daily flights to Cebu include Korean Air, Jin Air, and Jeju Air. Gabutina said that Jeju Air already has two flights per day to Cebu.

Another Korean airline, T’Way Air, will also resume flights to Cebu on July 15.

MAOC is an organization between airlines, ground handling agents, and other airport stakeholders operating within MCIA.

What is interesting about Korean carriers, Gabutina said, is that they are mostly bringing in Korean tourists unlike other international flights whose passengers are mostly Overseas Filipino Workers and balikbayans.

“(This shows that) everyone is excited to travel again. Jeju Air travels twice daily to Cebu, so that means the demand is already there. The airline will not be putting twice daily flights if there is no demand,” Gabutina explained.

Singapore Airlines and Singapore-based Scoot Air have also resumed its flights to Cebu.

With the return of the flights, Gabutina also said that there is already a “mass hiring” of ground personnel who were previously out of work when the flights dropped by 80 percent when the pandemic began.

Since January, international passengers to Cebu have already reached more than 128,000.

MAOC noted that the flights started to increase after the government scrapped the mandatory quarantine of foreign arrivals.

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