PAL prepares for cancel flights due to COVID surge

By KAREN SAN MIGUEL

Philippine Airlines is preparing to cancel flights after receiving a flood of rebooking requests from passengers amid the ongoing surge in COVID-19 infections.

PAL told passengers in an advisory that flight “cancellations or schedule adjustments are likely.

“Please continue to check flight status for any changes in your flight schedule, and stay updated on changes in travel requirements by checking the website of the concerned provincial local government or destination country,” the carrier said.

The Department of Health reported  17,220 new infections—up nearly 60 percent from the previous day. Moreover, the positivity rate climbed from 31.7 percent to 36.9 percent.

“We are receiving more and more calls from passengers who need to rebook or cancel their flights because they have tested positive or are in precautionary isolation,” PAL said in the advisory.

It added that many frontline employees in ticket offices, contact centers and other support teams were unable to report for work.

 “These simultaneous events have created challenges in our ability to serve all our customers promptly, including longer wait times for calls to our reservations hotlines, longer queues in ticket offices, and corresponding delays in handling transactions,” PAL said.

“Our PAL teams are doing all possible to process all passenger requests, unclog any bottlenecks and serve you the best we can. We request your understanding and cooperation as we cope with these serious but temporary challenges,” it added.

Meanwhile, in compliance with temporary Hong Kong government restrictions affecting all flights from several countries, we have cancelled the following flights from Manila to Hong Kong:

PAL PR 300 – Manila-Hong Kong                       

January 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20 and 21 (Wed/Thu/Fri/Sun)

“We revert to normal Manila-Hong Kong schedules starting 12:01 AM on January 22, 2022.

However, our PR 301 Hong Kong-Manila flights continue to operate every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday as scheduled,” PAL said in a statement.