MANILA – Bad weather is stalling efforts to clear the Iloilo International Airport of a Cebu Pacific plane that veered off the runway late Friday, even as technical experts from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Manila International Airport Authority have joined the Cebu Pacific team onsite.
The hampered clearing operation has prompted the CAAP to extend the runway closure until 5:00am on Monday, October 16, 2017. It was originally thought that clearing could end Saturday evening; this was postponed to Sunday 7pm, but the continuous bad weather apparently forced resetting of the target reopening to Monday morning.
The Airbus A320 Cebu Pacific was damaged after it overshot the runway, stranding thousands of passengers and forcing closure of the busy Iloilo International Airport.
Cebu Pacific will be providing free land transfers between Iloilo and Roxas for all affected passengers.
Cebu Pacific is cancelling the following late evening flights to and from Iloilo scheduled Sunday. See option 1 below:
2. Manila-Iloilo or Iloilo-Manila passengers may also re-route to Bacolod or Kalibo
3. For Iloilo-Hong Kong or Hong Kong-Iloilo passengers, re-route to Manila or Cebu, and then take a connecting flight. Re-routing will be arranged by Cebu Pacific
4. Rebook their flights for travel within 30 days from original departure date
5. Get a full refund
CEB Customer Care agents are contacting passengers on the cancelled flights to apprise them of the new schedule. They will also receive a free round-trip travel voucher.
For further inquiries and concerns, affected passengers are advised to call the Cebu Pacific hotline at (+632)702-0886, or message the official Cebu Pacific pages on Facebook (Facebook.com/cebupacificair), or Twitter (@CebuPacificAir).