PAL reduces HK flights; Cebu Pacific slashes rates

by Eric B. Apolonio and Jeremiah F. de Guzman
September 7, 2010
ManilaStandardToday

PHILIPPINE Airlines has reduced its flight frequencies to and from Hong Kong, while budget carrier Cebu Pacific is slashing rates in the aftermath of the Aug. 23 hostage-taking in Manila in which eight Chinese tourists were killed.

“Due to the lean season and in response to lower traffic after the tragic Quirino Grandstand incident, PAL has reduced its frequencies to four times from five times daily, but only for the period of Sept. 2 to Nov. 24, 2010,” spokeswoman Cielo Villaluna said.

“All affected passengers have been rebooked to the merged flights.”

Villaluna said the airline will waive the penalties for the canceled Hong Kong, China and Philippine-issued tickets until Sept. 15.

The carrier has experienced 1,100 cancellations covering flights from Hong Kong and parts of China as of Aug. 27, four days after a dismissed policeman held a bus full of Hong Kong tourists hostage and then shot and killed eight of them before he himself was killed in a botched rescue attempt.

China and Hong Kong condemned the police’s incompetence and asked Manila to explain. Hong Kong also canceled all package tours to the Philippines and told its nationals to avoid the country.

Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said Monday Hong Kong’s tourism industry could suffer bigger losses than the Philippines as a result of the fallout from the hostage-taking incident.

“Many Hong Kong tourists canceled their bookings due to the crisis and due to the travel advisory,” Lim said.

“We understand that and there is not much we can do about it, but there are Filipinos who also put off their trips to Hong Kong because they feared a possible backlash.”

More than 1,000 tour groups from Hong Kong and China had canceled their trips to the Philippines, resulting in a loss of $200,000, the China Daily said Monday quoting Tourism Undersecretary Simeon Marfori.

Meanwhile, budget carrier Cebu Pacific Air has cut its fares to Hong Kong and Macau to boost travel demand amid the increasing cancellations brought on by the Hong Kong government’s travel advisory against the Philippines.

Cebu Pacific has come up with a seat sale to Hong Kong and Macau after reporting over 1,000 cancellations from these routes and other destinations in China as of last week. The seat sale is available starting today, Tuesday, for travel from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, 2010.

Passengers could avail themselves of the P1,499-Go Lite seats from Manila or Clark to Hong Kong, and from Clark to Macau. P1,999-Go Lite seats were also available for the Cebu-Hong Kong and Manila-Macau flights, the airline said.