IT’S ALL HANDS on deck for the Philippine airline industry as many are expected to travel home to their provinces or go on vacation this Christmas season – the first since all coronavirus pandemic restrictions were lifted in the country.
All check-in counters of Philippine Airlines (PAL) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country’s main gateway, are now fully manned to avoid congestion.
“Now that we are in the peak season, we are fully utilizing all 40 counters of Terminal 1 and all 40 counters of Terminal 2. We are going to fully deploy our airport ground staff and ground handlers,” said PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna.
Aside from their personnel, Villaluna said they have also augmented their fleet to accommodate more travelers since they are expecting a higher passenger count this holiday season compared to December 2022.
“Our fleet is now at a count of 78 from our pre-pandemic count of 98 aircraft. We are expecting the arrival of more aircraft that we returned to lessors at the height of the pandemic. We just welcomed back our (Airbus) A330 (on Tuesday),” she noted.
Villaluna added that the series of earthquakes that hit different parts of the country these past few weeks did not affect their flights.
“After each and every quake, we check the condition of our aircraft. We check the condition of the runway in coordination, of course, with airport authorities. So far, these quakes have not affected our flights,” she said.
For budget airline AirAsia Philippines, it has also deployed more personnel to man their check-in counters and help desks at NAIA.
AirAsia Philippines spokesperson Steve Dailisan also noted that they will not allow for overbooking at this time.
“We make sure na ‘pag ganitong peak season ay hindi namin ipinatutupad, sinususpinde namin ‘yung pagpapatupad niyan para nga masiguro na wala ring maaberya o walang maha-hassle na mga guests sa kanilang pag-celebrate ng Christmas and new year,” said Dailisan.
He said that based on their estimates they expect to cater to 450,000 AirAsia passengers this entire holiday season.
“Ibang-iba talaga ang sitwasyon noong nakaraang taon, noong Disyembre, kung saan may mga international destinations pa rin na sarado. Ngayon, lahat bukas na. Inaasahan natin na dito natin mararamdaman ‘yung tinatawag na peak ng travel,” he added. (ABS-CBN News)
