No Dubai-Manila commercial flights until the end of August
Philippine carriers will instead deploy special flights, subject to approval
Regular commercial flights between Dubai and Manila on Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific will remain suspended until the end of next month, airline officials confirmed to Gulf News.
The announcement came following a decision by the Philippine government on Friday to “extend the ban on travellers from 10 countries, including the UAE, until August 15 to curb the transmission of the Covid-19 Delta variant”.
“Cebu Pacific has cancelled its flights to and from Dubai from August 1 until August 31, 2021, to ensure that its operations restart smoothly and safely. This schedule realignment is geared towards avoiding any last-minute changes that could cause inconvenience to our passengers,” a statement from the Manilabased budget carrier said.
A Dubai-based spokesperson for Philippine Airlines (PAL) also confirmed to Gulf News that the airline had not received any confirmation yet on when commercial flights will resume.
“What we have are special flights, called Bayanihan flights, but these are subject to approval from authorities in Manila,” the PAL official clarified.
The airline official added that a special commercial flight (Flight PR659) left Dubai at
10.20pm on Thursday, bound for Davao. “The flight was originally bound for Manila, but was re-routed to Davao because we were not able to secure hotel quarantine bookings for passengers in Manila,” the official continued.
Hotel quarantine a must
The PAL official also said that based on guidelines set by the Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), airlines are required to ensure bookings for a 14-day hotel quarantine for all inbound passengers before they secure a special permit to deploy a Bayanihan flight.
“We have already cancelled our flight on August 2 and the flight on August 4 is still tentative,” noted the PAL official, adding: “Passengers must check with the airlines to confirm the flight status before heading to the airport.”