Local airline eyes incentive grants after booking loss

LOCAL carrier Cebu Pacific lost some P1.5 billion after several passengers requested for refund amid the ongoing coronavirus threat.

Compared to the same period in 2019, flight bookings went down by 87 percent in February as China and Hong Kong account for 30 percent of Cebu Pacific’s flight operations, said CebuPac’s vice president for corporate affairs Paterno Mantarin Jr.

“We are now feeling the effect of the coronavirus on the tourism industry… hopefully we can survive this challenging time,” he said.

“We welcome all measures to alleviate the burden of the industry, including the granting of incentives,” he added.

On the previous week, the government banned flights to and from mainland China and its special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau to arrest the spread of the virus that originated from the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

China is the Philippines’ second largest tourism market, next to South Korea.

The Department of Tourism said it will boost tourism marketing efforts in South Korea, United States, Japan and the Southeast Asian region to try to offset losses from China. (with a report from ABS-CBN/PN)

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