INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The country’s largest budget airline, Cebu Pacific, will be reducing direct flights connecting the country to several cities in China.
This developed after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed on Thursday evening, January 30, 2020, that the first patient who tested positive of the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, flew directly to Cebu from Hong Kong.
“In light of developments related to the Wuhan Coronavirus, Cebu Pacific will be reducing flights between the Philippines, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau from February 5, 2020 to March 29, 2020,” the advisory said.
Cebu Pacific also advised passengers affected by the recent changes to check the status of their flights through the Manage Booking portal in the Cebu Pacific website, https://book.cebupacificair.com/Manage/Retrieve/.
The following options are made available for passengers on cancelled flights:
- Rebook the flight (new flight date within 30 days of original travel date)
- Refund the tickets in full
- Store the value of the ticket in a Travel Fund for future use
“We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank our passengers for their understanding. We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.” the advisory added.
DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo confirmed on Thursday that based on the flight information their agency has gathered, the 38-year-old female from Wuhan City arrived in the country on board a direct flight from Hong Kong to Cebu on January 21, 2020.
READ: DOH confirms nCoV patient being treated in San Lazaro Hospital; no hospital lockdown
The contact tracing of the passengers on board with the patient is current underway.
The patient, now confined in San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila, also traveled to Dumaguete City after arriving in Cebu.
The Chinese tourist was about to return to China after boarding a plane from Dumaguete to Manila but was admitted on January 25, 2020 for having mild cough.
Online database for airports, FlightConnections.com, revealed that Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) currently has 105 direct flights per month, serving the Cebu-HongKong-Cebu route.
Cebu also has direct flights to Macau, and to at east eight cities in mainland China. There is no direct flight to and from Wuhan City and Cebu. /bmjo