Mactan airport to set a cap of 1,000 arrivals per day for unvaccinated foreigners

CEBU CITY — The Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) will be placing a cap of up to 1,000 arrivals per day for unvaccinated foreign tourists who are entering Cebu province by March 1.

This was reached during a meeting between Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and MCIA General Manager Julius Neri Jr. “in consideration of the availability of hotel rooms“ which will be used for their 5-day quarantine.

Cebu province will accept tourists regardless of their vaccination status, believing its policy adheres to the national COVID-19 task force resolution which allows such.

For fully vaccinated travelers, Garcia said there will be no cap as to the arrivals because they no longer need a mandatory quarantine.

Garcia said the cap will be enough because they believe there are only a few arriving travelers who are still unvaccinated.

The governor said they have noticed a few foreign tourist arrivals yet in Cebu since the country began to open its borders last February 10. She, however, expects the numbers to increase again soon.

Philippine Airlines have informed Cebu province that they will be resuming their direct flights from Los Angeles to Cebu by March.

Domestic travelers, however, have started to increase in the province as flights were also increased to and from Cebu.

Under Garcia’s Executive Order No.3-2022, unvaccinated foreign tourists may enter the Cebu airport as long as they can present a negative swab test result, swab upon arrival, and a facility-based quarantine with another swab test on the fifth day.

EDV