Cebu Pacific to resume flights to Caticlan March 1

MANILA, Philippines - After seven months of absence, low cost carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB) is set to resume on March 1 flight to the Godofredo P. Ramos Airport in Caticlan, otherwise known as, the gateway to Boracay.

CEB suspended its flights to Caticlan last July, heeding the advice of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) that the airport’s runway is not long enough to accommodate its ATR 72-500 twin-turbo prop aircraft.

The aviation body has also enforced a one-way landing, one-way takeoff policy at the Caticlan Airport.

In a memo to the CEB, dated Jan. 25, 2010 the CAAP said airplans can now take off both ways. In the event of unavoidable airport conditions, flights to Caticlan may still be diverted to Kalibo.

These conditions include wet runway due to heavy rains and strong wind.

CEB said it will gradually reintroduce its Caticlan service starting with five flights per day beginning with the transfer of four Manila-Kalibo and one Cebu-Kalibo flights to Caticlan. This transition is a gradual process to give time to retraining of CEB ATR pilots to the Caticlan route.

Full operations would start on March 28, with 11 Manila-Caticlan-Manila flights and one Cebu-Caticlan-Cebu operation.

CEB said the gradual transition to Caticlan is necessary to assure ATR pilots are properly re-certified for the route.

“As much as we would like to resume our full Caticlan schedule, our main priority will always be the safety of our passengers,” said CEB VP for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog.

She added that CEB flew one million passengers to Boracay via Caticlan last year.