The three local airlines in the country have cancelled all their domestic flights going to and from Metro Manila. The cancellations cover the newly implemented Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) period from August 4 to 18, 2020.
Metro Manila, along with Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, was placed again under MECQ on August 3, following the recommendation of medical organizations and frontliners over the weekend. As a rule set by the Inter-Agency Task Force, domestic flights are not allowed during an MECQ. Thus, flights between domestic destinations other than Metro Manila are still allowed during the period.
Cebu Pacific
The airline immediately released an advisory announcing the suspension of all its domestic flights to and from Metro Manila during the MECQ period. Cebu Pacific said its domestic flights Clark-Cebu-Clark and Cebu-Davao-Cebu will continue every Tuesday.
At the same time, the company’s international routes will continue to operate in a limited capacity. Those are flights Manila-Dubai-Manila, Manila-Seoul (Incheon), Tokyo (Narita)-Manila, Osaka-Manila, and Manila-Singapore-Manila. However, flights between Manila and Taipei are cancelled. All-cargo flights will continue to operate to continuously transport essential goods across the country.
Affected passengers can still take any of the three options offered: unlimited rebooking (rebook within 3 months without change fees and fare difference), putting off the fare amount to a 2-year travel fund, or getting a full refund.
Philippine Airlines
The national carrier announced the cancellation of all its regular scheduled domestic flights to and from Manila for the next 15 days of MECQ. However, its advisory stated that domestic flights between Clark, Cebu, and Davao and other cities other than Metro Manila will not be affected and shall remain operational.
Philippine Airlines’ international flights to and from Manila will continue to operate throughout the MECQ period. But those flights will be subject to further guidelines from the authorities.
All affected passengers can opt to rebook, refund, of convert their ticket fare into a travel voucher.
Air Asia
Meanwhile, AirAsia seems to refuse to call a spade a spade. In its advisory, the budget airline prefers to be vague, not directly mentioning flight cancellations. We guess it is up for its passengers to figure out. (Commercial flights to and from Manila shall be cancelled during the MECQ period. There! We did it for them.)
