PAL appeals for passengers’ patience

MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is appealing for passengers’ patience over challenges to serve them promptly, saying that it has been receiving an increasing number of calls for rebooking and cancellations as COVID-19 cases in the country surge.

In a statement issued before the weekend, PAL said it has been experiencing difficulties in fully accommodating the high volume of calls and requests due to unavailability of many of its staff.

“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. At the same time, many of our frontline team members in ticket offices, contact centers and other support teams are unable to report for work,” the airline said the other day.

“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,” it said.

PAL, however, said its teams are doing everything possible to process all passenger requests, as well as unclog any bottlenecks and serve customers the best it can.

“We request your understanding and cooperation as we cope with these serious but temporary challenges,” the airline said.

PAL is strongly encouraging its customers to use its MyPAL Request Hub for rebooking requests, queries and ticket transactions, rather than call PAL’s customer hotline or visit its ticket offices.

“Let us reserve the customer hotline and ticket offices for the most urgent calls and transactions related to travel within the next seven days,” it said.

PAL also asked passengers to consider deferring less urgent rebooking transactions until after the ongoing surge in cases and the current Alert Level 3 period in Metro Manila.

For those who purchased their tickets through a travel agent, the airline urged them to deal directly with their agent for any rebooking or ticketing transaction needs.

“Your cooperation and support will help us to assist our passengers with the most urgent concerns,” PAL said.

While it will endeavor to sustain as many flights as possible under the current circumstances, PAL said some cancellations or schedule adjustments are likely.

PAL urged customers to check flight status for any changes in their flight schedule, and stay updated on changes in travel requirements by checking the website of the concerned provincial local government or destination country.

“We sincerely apologize to our passengers and their families. Thank you for the patience and cooperation as we work with you and with our partner agents, government authorities and our PAL teams worldwide to make the best of a very challenging situation,” the flag carrier said.

Airline, airport operations cut 50%

Officials from the Department of Transportation recommended to the Airline Operators Council operating at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) the reduction of domestic flights and daily allocation for international arriving passenger capacity by 50 percent due to lack of manpower.

According to an airport insider, Undersecretary Raul del Rosario of the Office of Transportation and Security and coordinator of the One Stop Shop recommended the reduction of domestic flights to only 14 per hour from the original 40, two flights for general aviation per hour and lower daily allocation to 2,000 international passengers from 4,000 effective on Jan. 11.

The reason is that many personnel from controllers to ground and airline personnel are now isolated, some waiting for laboratories to release their RT-PCR tests.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines issued a notice to airmen dated Jan. 6 limiting domestic flights to 14 per day and two flights for general aviation as well the reduced landing and takeoff capacity due to unavailable control tower personnel.

Local carriers PAL, Cebu Pacific and the AirAsia canceled some of their domestic flights due to ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region and an increasing number of Metro Manila residents that have either tested positive or have been in close contact with suspected positive cases. – Rudy Santos