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Coronavirus: All Philippine Airlines flights to be suspended

Philippine Airlines (PAL) international flights are being suspended from Thursday.

Aircraft will be grounded until April 14 following all domestic flights ceasing on March 17.

The airline said in a statement: “After careful consideration, we concluded that PAL could no longer sustain even a limited number of international flights.”

This is due to the following “compelling” reasons:

  • The strict travel and entry restrictions imposed by more and more countries;
  • The resulting collapse in demand for travel; and
  • Continuing challenges in staffing our Manila airport hub during the ongoing lockdown.

The last flight to depart from Manila was to San Francisco on Wednesday.

Several flights will continue to arrive in Manila on March 26 from Los Angeles, Tokyo Narita and Jakarta, and on March 27 from New York JFK, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“Our firm goal is to resume operations starting 15 April 2020, if warranted by Philippine and international authorities, global public health conditions and the travel environment,” the carrier added.

“We shall now turn our attention to the task of conserving our resources in anticipation of the recovery and caring for the needs of our PAL team members, while we keep our fleet ready for the day that we resume flying.

“We shall continue to make aircraft and service personnel available for special flights to retrieve stranded passengers as well as cargo flights to keep intact critical supply chains across our islands.”

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