In its continuing efforts to keep its commercial flights safer for passengers and staff, Cebu Pacific is introducing the Test Before Boarding (TBB) scheme. Under this initiative, the carrier’s passengers will undergo antigen testing at the airport just before their scheduled flights.
TBB is aimed at further reducing the risk of infection that may possibly occur between testing and boarding, finding infected passengers in a more timely manner. Only those passengers with negative antigen results will be allowed to board the departing Cebu Pacific aircraft.
Cebu Pacific will pilot TBB for a two-week trial period beginning December 3, 2020. It will initially be implemented for flights from Manila going to General Santos for a 14-day duration (until December 14, 2020). The initiative will be carried out in collaboration with the local government of General Santos in coordination with the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory (PADL). During these two weeks, passengers of Manila to General Santos routes will undergo TBB free-of-charge. Thus, they will no longer have to undergo any other test prior to their flights.
Multi-layered safety approach
TBB is another initiative in the company’s multi-layered safety approach. Cebu Pacific continues to deploy the world’s best safety practices to make sure guests can travel with peace of mind. Such tasks include extensive daily disinfection of every aircraft, installation of HEPA air filters onboard (can filter out 99.99% of viruses), frequent cleaning of passenger surfaces at the airport and in-flight, and implementation of enhanced self-service online portals to easily manage flights.
“We welcome this development through Cebu Pacific because it opens up more people to the idea of traveling again,” said General Santos City Mayor Ronnel Rivera. “We believe this will be a breakthrough initiative, as it will allow our residents to feel more secure and not be wary of arriving passengers from Manila.”
Cebu Pacific VP for Marketing and Customer Experience Candice Iyog reiterated how the company prioritizes health and safety in the current environment. “We look forward to the results of this pilot so we can pave for a more confident restart of non-essential travel and a standardization of requirements across all Philippine destinations.”
Pre-flight procedures
1. Fill out an electronic passenger information form (E-PIF) found here.
2. Pre-register through this link at least 24 hours before the flight.
3. Secure a travel authority to be allowed entry into General Santos City.
4. Check-in online before going to the airport, as part of Contactless Flight procedures.
5. At the airport, proceed to the testing facility located at Level 3 of the NAIA Terminal 3 (ideally 5 hours before departure to provide ample time for testing procedures). Swab samples will be collected individually with results to be released within 30 minutes.
6. After the completion of the test, PADL will provide a certificate showing the results of their antigen test. If negative, you can proceed straight to the gate or bag drop counters until an hour before the scheduled time of departure (1:05 p.m.).
7. Passengers with positive results will be referred to another testing facility for confirmatory RT-PCR testing.
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