The country’s flag carrier, Philippine Air Lines (PAL), has expanded its travel ban to include Taiwan and areas in Greater China in a bid to contain the entry of the deadly novel coronavirus (2019 nCov-ARD) that already claimed the lives of more than 1000 people.
“We are constrained to cancel all our flights between Manila and Taipei effective immediately, until further notice. These cancelled flights are PR890/891 Manila-Taipei-Manila and PR894/895 Manila-Taipei-Manila,” PAL said in its travel advisory.
PAL said the expanded directive temporarily bans the entry of any person, regardless of nationality except Filipino citizens and holders of Permanent Resident Visa issued by the Philippine Government, who come directly from Greater China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, or who had been to China including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan within 14 days prior to their arrival in the Philippines.
PAL passengers with flights to and from Taiwan starting today, February 11 onwards, had been advised to wait for the lifting of the ban.
Passengers with cancelled flights may refund their ticket at any time or they can rebook flights once the travel ban is lifted.
On February 2, PAL had cancelled flights between Manila and Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xiamen, Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Macau until February 29, 2020. It later extended the travel ban until March 28, 2020 in view of the increasing cases of contamination.
The travel ban complies with the February 2, 2020 directive of the President Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine Civil Aeronautics Board, in a bid to “protect the Philippine public by helping to contain and neutralize the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
The following options are available for affected passengers:
FOR TICKETS PURCHASED THROUGH TRAVEL AGENCIES: You may contact your travel agent for rebooking rerouting or refunding.
FOR TICKETS PURCHASED THROUGH THE PAL WEBSITE, or PAL CONTACT CENTER: You may contact our hotline (+632) 8855-8888 for rebooking, rerouting or refunding.
FOR TICKETS PURCHASED THROUGH A PAL TICKET OFFICE: You may visit the PAL ticket office nearest you.