Cebu Pacific (CEB) will conduct another special commercial flight on August 25 to assist overseas Filipinos in the Middle East who need to go home despite an ongoing travel restriction.
Aside from free meals, the airline said passengers on this flight will receive additional baggage allowance.
Passengers with pre-purchased baggage allowance of 40 kg will receive an additional 25-kg baggage allowance.
Guests who purchased 20-kg or 32-kg will be upgraded to baggage allowance of up to 40 kilograms.
“With this special offer, passengers on the Bayanihan flights to Manila will be able to bring home more items without having to worry about paying extra fees,” the airline said.
“We continue to listen to our passengers’ needs, and we want to do all we can to ease some of our kababayans’ worries through this additional baggage allowance. We want them to travel and come home with peace of mind, especially in this time of crisis,” said Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing and Customer Experience.
The airline said passengers must check in based on allowed bag weight and number of bag pieces, and follow the allowed hand-carry policy—a maximum weight of 7 kg and dimension of 56 cm x 36 cm x 23 cm.
All excess baggage and intercepted bags will be on space availability only.
Cebu Pacific said this Bayanihan flight was mounted in coordination with the Philippine Consulate in Dubai and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Passengers will be required to wear face masks and face shields on the flight and are subject to more stringent guidelines, including a 15-day/14-night quarantine stay in a pre-booked, accredited facility upon arrival; and RT-PCR test taken 48 hours before departure with negative result. Another swab test will be taken seven days after arrival.
The cost of quarantine accommodation and testing for land-based overseas Filipino workers will be shouldered by Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, while the Philippine Ports Authority will cover the cost for sea-based OFWs.
Other returning citizens will have to pay for their accommodation and testing.
Accredited hotels for this flight are Savoy Hotel, Manila Diamond Hotel, Lub D Makati, Go Hotels Ortigas and Holiday Inn Galeria Manila.
Before departing Dubai, passengers must register for One Health Pass through the website: https://www.onehealthpass.com.ph/e-HDC/. Upon completion, each passenger will be issued a Personal QR Code. This must be presented upon check-in for the flight, and upon arrival at Manila. Passengers must also accomplish a Bayanihan form from Cebu Pacific at least 24 hours before the flight. This form will be available via a link that will be sent to them via email.
Seafarers
AirAsia Philippines said it ferried 70 Filipino seafarers from Manila to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Sri Lanka via flight Z28160 last August 12.
The Filipino mariners had just finished their annual vacation and renewed their contracts to return to their posts at the port of Colombo and Port of Hambatota in Sri Lanka.
From there, the airline said they will be travelling around the world onboard their vessels carrying petroleum products, foods and other commodities.
Meanwhile, 77 Pinoy mariners who boarded the return flight (Z2-8161) arrived at the NAIA Terminal 3 and were brought to a hotel for the mandatory 14-day quarantine before they can be reunited with their families.
Filipino seafarers make up the largest number of mariners in the world. The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency reported that in 2019, almost half a million or 518,519 Filipino sailors were deployed around the world, contributing $6.14 billion to the Philippine economy.
Sri Lanka tops the destinations of the Filipino mariners because of the country’s strong bilateral ties with the Philippines.
AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson Steve Dailisan said, “AirAsia takes pride in being able to ensure the safe transport of our OFW’s here and abroad during these challenging times, which in turn assures the continuous trade of goods around the world. It’s an ecosystem that we are humbled to take part in.”
AirAsia Philippines’ Sri Lanka flight departs from NAIA Terminal every Thursday, 9:00 a.m. Its return flight departs from Matalla Rajapaksa International Airport at 4:00 p.m. and arrives in Manila at 10:00 p.m.
Aside from Sri Lanka, AirAsia Philippines is also working with local manning agencies to assist Filipino seafarers coming from and flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Batam in Indonesia based on demand.
To date, AirAsia has safely mounted more than 600 chartered repatriation and sweeper flights and has reunited 50,000 Filipinos with their families and loved ones.