Dubai: Due to continued travel restrictions imposed by the Philippine government, four daily flights (PR659) from Dubai to Manila on Philippine Airlines (PAL) have been cancelled from April 3-6, a PAL official in Dubai confirmed to Gulf News on Thursday.
PAL has already cancelled several flights this week after the Philippine government limited all incoming daily passenger numbers to Manila to only 1,500 and imposed a travel ban on foreigners from entering the country effective March 22, 12.01am (Manila time) until April 21, 11.59pm (Manila time). Philippine authorities said the travel restrictions are part of the measures to control the rise in daily COVID-19 cases.
Last Monday, Metro Manila and four nearby provinces were put under lockdown, affecting movement of around 25 million people. It was also the day when the country logged 10,016 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began. New cases reported on Thursday, April 1, were 8,920, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 756,199 while active cases went up to 138,948.
Advice for affected passengers
Addressing concerns of affected passengers, PAL issued a statement on its website, saying: “If your flight is cancelled, we wish to assure you that your current tickets are safe and remain valid. If you need to take another RT-PCR test for your new flight schedule, you may undergo RT-PCR testing at PAL’s own testing facility at PAL Learning Center or PAL Gate 3.”
The statement added that those affected by the flight cancellations can avail of any of the following options: Rebook on the same cabin class (with rebooking service fees waived); ask for a refund or convert ticket into a travel voucher for future use.
“This is a developing situation and it is quite possible that our plans and schedules may change in response to evolving travel restrictions and quarantine limitations at arrival airports. Kindly check our website or follow our social media accounts, so that you’ll be updated the moment we release advisories on new developments,” the PAL statement added.
