PAL offers discounts to Filipino evacuees

April 16, 2011
Manila Standard Today
by Jeremiah F. de Guzman and Eric B. Apolonio

FLAG carrier Philippine Airlines said Fridiay it is cutting the fares on its flights from Japan to Manila to help Filipino evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture.

The price of a one-way ticket from Narita to Manila or Cebu will be reduced for a limited time to about $335 from $500, the airline said.

President and chief executive Lucio Tan ordered the discounts, the airline said.

More than 55 Filipinos living within the 100-kilometer radius of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant are expected to arrive in Manila on Sunday on board flight PR 431 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

Filipino evacuees were advised to coordinate with the Philippine Embassy in Japan, which is in charge of the repatriation.

Only Filipino evacuees facing involuntary evacuation from areas within the danger zone declared by authorities may avail themselves of the “all-in” discounted tickets, which exclude Japanese taxes and other fees.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government ordered the operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant Friday to pay an initial $12,000 for each household forced to evacuate because of leaking radiation, a handout some of the displaced slammed as too little.

The utility will start paying out the roughly $600 million in compensation April 28 to those forced to evacuate, with families getting about $12,000 and single adults getting about $9,000, the government said.

Roughly 48,000 households living within about 19 miles of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant would be eligible for the payments, said Trade Ministry spokesman Hiroaki Wada. With AP