SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Strong tailwinds encountered by a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight over the Subic Bay Freeport had prevented the landing here on Monday of the first batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arriving under a government program to bring home workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, quoting a report from PAL, said the tailwind, or wind blowing from behind the aircraft, “was not within limits.”
Instead, Flight PR5683, which was scheduled for landing at the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) at 10:43 a.m. on Monday, landed at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark Freeport, Eisma said.
The diverted flight was the first of the six PAL arrivals expected at the SBIA this month under a government program to ferry home mostly overseas workers.
PAL Flight PR5683, which originated from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, carried 309 returning OFWs, two seamen, and one Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF).
Eisma said, however, that despite the flight diversion, its passengers will have the obligatory quarantine at accredited hotels and accommodation establishments in the Subic Bay Freeport.
The SBMA said last week the schedule of PAL flights to Subic to be on July 5, 7, 15, 17, 25, and 27. Each PAL Airbus A330 flight will have an average of 230 passengers, mostly OFWs from Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
The arrival of OFWs via Subic is in line with the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to impose a limit for all international airports in the country to accommodate just 1,500 passengers per day. Accordingly, PAL has distributed its flights to various airports in the country.
Eisma said that with the OFW flights, Subic is once more “in a unique position to be of service to the Filipino nation, particularly repatriated workers, who long to be home but were hindered by pandemic restrictions.”
She pointed out that Subic also began serving as a Crew-Change One-Stop-Shop hub since September last year to help bring home stranded Filipino seafarers or send them back to work after some vacation.
Eisma said the PAL flights would create “positive impact on local tourism that would also redound to the benefit of workers, business establishments, and service operators in our communities.”
Accommodation facilities outside the free port may also have the opportunity to take in any overflow that may ensue, she added.
Under the scheduled PAL flights here, arriving passengers would be quarantined for seven to 10 days in Subic hotels and accommodation facilities accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and certified by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ).
SBMA OIC-Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations Ronnie Yambao said his office has been in close coordination with the BOQ to ensure that all health safety protocols would be in place and strictly enforced at the Subic airport for the arrival of PAL flights.
Yambao said the SBMA has also synchronized its efforts with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to ensure seamless processing of passengers, as well as with PAL to meet its requirements.
He pointed out that the Subic airport is being developed since last year to accommodate passenger, as well as corporate aircraft under a P91.3-million package to upgrade equipment and improve facilities in the Subic airport.