Scrapped tourist reservations a fallout from hostage fiasco
Canceled bookings of Chinese tourists with the Philippines’ two largest airlines continued to rise because of the bloody ending to a recent hostage drama in Manila where eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed.
A total of 2,100 bookings had been scrapped as of Wednesday.
In a statement, Cebu Pacific said that it has accommodated about 1,000 requests for rebooking or cancelations from passengers in mainland China and Hong Kong.
According to Philippine Airlines (PAL), its cancelled bookings from Hong Kong and China had reached 1,100 passengers as of Friday.
The flag-carrier said that the Chinese market is “very important” for its revenue.
PAL added that Hong Kong contributes about 6 percent to PAL’s total revenue, while China contributes 3.3 percent and Macau, 0.4 percent.
It flies 43 times weekly from Manila to China and from China to Manila.
Cebu Pacific said that it has seen a slight softening of forward bookings for Hong Kong-Cebu and Shanghai-Manila flights.
But the budget carrier added that forward bookings from Hong Kong to Manila and Clark, as well as Guangzhou to Manila are still climbing.
“This stable climb of forward bookings is the same for majority of our international routes,” it said.
The budget airline added that passengers scheduled to travel from September 1 to 15 from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to the Philippines may rebook their flights or store the value of their booking in a Travel Fund without penalties.
In mainland China, Cebu Pacific flies to Shanghai daily, and to Guangzhou thrice weekly.
It will launch its 16th international destination, Beijing, on September 5.
The airline also flies from Manila, Cebu and Clark to Hong Kong, offering the most number of routes and frequencies from the Philippines.
BY DARWIN G. AMOJELAR REPORTER
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