DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 June) – Mayor Sara Duterte said additional commercial flights to Davao City from Manila, Iloilo, and Clark might be available starting Monday next week to cater to residents who wanted to return home.
Duterte said during a live interview over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) that the local government has already submitted the list of proposed additional flights to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for approval after meeting officials from Davao International Airport, CAAP-Davao, city government and executives of airline firms.
Davao International Airport.
She said the airlines would open the additional flights starting June 29 once the proposal is approved by CAAP within the week.
Of the proposed additional flights, three are for Manila-Davao-Manila and one each for Davao-Iloilo-Davao and Davao-Clark-Davao routes on different dates, according to Duterte.
She said Cebu Pacific, AirAsia, and Philippine Airlines (PAL) will service Manila-Davao City-Manila on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, respectively, while PAL will service Davao City-Iloilo-Davao City and Davao-Clark-Davao on Fridays.
She said the local government considered the number of Covid-19 cases in the city in making the decision to add more flights.
As of June 24, Department of Health-Davao listed a total of 488 COVID-19 in the region: 395 in Davao City, 31 in Davao del Norte, 21 in Davao del Sur, 15 in Davao de Oro, 22 in Davao Oriental and four in Davao Occidental.
Duterte reminded Dabawenyos to keep a safe distance from returning passengers who are on 14-day home quarantine to avoid getting infected.
“We should expect that there would be more people entering the city because we would increase the number of flights, more than what we have when we started last June 8… Don’t go near them until they complete the quarantine and see they do not develop the symptoms of Covid-19,” she said.
When domestic commercial flights resumed last June 8, PAL opened Manila-Davao-Manila flights on Mondays, Cebu-Davao-Cebu flights on Tuesdays, and Davao-Clark-Davao flights on Fridays.
Cebu Pacific opened Cebu-Davao-Cebu flights on Tuesdays and Manila-Davao-Manila flights on Wednesdays.
AirAsia opened Cebu-Davao-Cebu flights on Thursdays, Manila-Davao-Manila flights on Fridays and Clark-Davao-Clark flights on Saturdays until June 30.
Duterte told passengers to strictly adhere to the 14-day home quarantine and advised them to directly proceed to Southern Philippines Medical Center for testing in case they show symptoms of the disease. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
