Published
By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) reported 52 commercial flights and 51 cargo flights completed as of this weekend under the Enhanced Community Quarantine for Luzon, COVID-19 Code Red Sublevel 2.
The latest CAAP report also showed 57 sweeper flights, or special flights, were mounted to bring stranded passengers from domestic airports to international airports.
The continued service for cargo flights ensured that transport of goods is sustained, according to the transport agency.
So far, the Philippine Airlines (PAL) has mounted ten roundtrip all-cargo flights between Manila and Cebu, Iloilo,Davao and Cagayan de Oro from March 19, 2020, up to press time, March 27 2020.
From March 19 to 24, PAL mounted one Manila-Cebu-Manila cargo only flights per day, adding a Manila- Davao-Manila cargo flight on March 24.
PAL mounted six cargo-only flights Wednesday this week (March 25, 2020), one round trip from Manila-Cebu-Manila and two round trips from Manila-Davao- Manila.
The flag carrier mounted four similar flights on Thursday (March 26), Manila- Cagayan de Oro-Manila and Manila-Iloilo-Manila.
Last Friday, March 27, PAL operated an all-cargo roundtrip flight between Manila-Davao-Manila as well as Manila-Osaka-Manila.
This Sunday, March 29 , PAL scheduled two round trip cargo flights from Manila-Bangkok- Manila and from Manila-Shanghai-Manila.
The PAL Group flies essential cargo such as medicines, medical supplies and equipment from Manila to its domestic outlying stations in the Visayas and Mindanao using its Airbus A321 fleet.
In one week, from March 19 to 25, PAL carried an estimated total load of 140,529 kilos (gross weight) of cargo.
For its part Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) last week added more cargo flights from General Santos (Gen¬San), South Cotabato, and neighboring cities to transport food, including tuna, to Manila.
“Prior to the implementation of Community Quarantine and travel restrictions almost two weeks ago which prompted a temporary sus¬pension of our operations, Cebu Pacific and Cebgo flew about 350 to 370 flights daily,” Alex Reyes, Cebgo President & CEO told Manila Bulletin.
These flights typically included commercial cargo where space available after passenger baggage. On top of the passenger flights, Cebgo invested in an all-cargo ATR freighter aircraft, which carries up to seven tons of cargo, he explained.
“Today, the ATR Freighter picks up the slack for commercial cargo. On top of that, sweeper flights organized in cooperation and coordination with the government to ferry stranded passengers over the last several days also carried vital cargo such as medicines and personal protective equipment— the latter free of charge to help our medical and public health front liners.”
From Mar 23 to 27, Cebu Pacific has operated over 30 purely cargo flights between Manila, Cebu, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Davao and Iloilo.
This is on top of the sweeper flights between Manila, Clark and Puerto Princesa, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Tacloban, Caticlan and Davao over the past several days.
CEB’s purely cargo flights fly from Manila to key domestic destinations which show demand.
