One month after holding a “Super Seat Fest” that offered discounted rates for one million seats, budget airline Cebu Pacific Air announced numerous flight cancellations owing to an “unprecedented level of disruption to its operations”.
The cancellations started on Sunday, April 28, when the airline cancelled 16 flights, or eight round-trip flights, originating from its Manila hub.
A total of 44 flights were cancelled from April 28 to 30, affecting services between Manila and the following cities: Legazpi, Tacloban, Davao, Bacolod, Zamboanga, Iloilo, Dumaguete, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Dipolog, Cebu, General Santos, Puerto Princesa, Ozamiz, Roxas and San Jose.
On April 29, the airline announced the cancellation of 58 round-trip flights from May 1 to 10.
On April 30, Cebu Pacific Air operator Cebu Air, Inc. told the Philippine Stock Exchange that it would have to cancel around 10 flights a day out of 400 flights for the entire month of May.
The airline said it was still reviewing adjustments required for June and beyond.
In the same statement, Cebu Air said it has to temporarily reduce the number of its flights “to create space in its schedule for operational recovery, minimize rolling delays and give passengers the chance to make alternate travel plans.”
“We are truly sorry for the inconvenience this has caused our passengers. Efforts have been made to minimize the disruption to our passengers in the past week. However, we realize that current operating conditions, particularly in our Manila hub, necessitate a temporary reduction of flights,” the airline stated.
Cebu Pacific passengers have been experiencing extended delays and some on-the-spot cancellations because of an unprecedented level of disruption to its operations, the airline said.
“The priority of CEB is to assist disrupted passengers and fly them to their destinations at the soonest possible time. CEB is working with the airport authorities, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders to make things better for our passengers,” it added. CEB is the airline code of Cebu Pacific Air.
Passengers on cancelled flights may either rebook flights free of charge within 30 days from the original departure date, get a full refund, place the full cost of the ticket in a travel fund, or re-route to or from alternate airports for travel within 30 days.
Each affected passenger will also be provided one round-trip travel voucher for future flights.
The cancellations happened just a month after the airline concluded a massive seat sale for the entire month of March in celebration of its 23rd anniversary.
It is usual for airlines to overbook by around 10% of an aircraft’s capacity to offset possible no-show passengers.
Some netizens, irked by the cancellations, surmised that the airline may have greatly overbooked following its seat sale. (Ventures Cebu)
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