PAL ends repatriation flights via Subic Freeport

After almost nine months of flying home overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and other returning Filipinos via this free port, the Philippine Air Lines (PAL) landed its last “Bayanihan” repatriation flight here on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

The last flight into Subic consisted of 77 passengers from Koror City in Palau, an archipelago of islands southeast of the Philippines with a substantial population of Filipino contract workers.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the government’s repatriation flights to Subic Bay was stopped after aviation authorities increased the capacity of inbound international passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when Covid-19 restrictions were eased.

“So, there’s no more need for PAL to reroute OFW flights via Subic. It is a bittersweet moment for us because PAL’s repatriation flights here somewhat revived our airport operations and brought much- needed income to Subic hotels during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Eisma said on Tuesday.

“Still, the lifting of passenger capacity limit at the NAIA is a sign that we are going back to normal and this is most welcome,” she added.

Eisma said that at the height of the government OFW repatriation program, Subic was connected to 10 cities and major destinations in the Indo-Pacific area. These are Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE; Doha in Qatar; Macau, Palau, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Diego Garcia.

She added that the use of Subic as an alternate port of since July last year has resulted in increased international aircraft and passenger movements, as well as improved income for the Subic airport.

According to Zharrex Santos, manager of the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA), PAL has made a total of 82 repatriation flights here since July when the SBIA was made an alternative hub under a government program to facilitate the return of OFWs during the Covid-19 pandemic. These did not include nine flights diverted to the nearby Clark Airport due to inclement weather.

With the 82 Bayanihan flights, a total of 20,522 passengers were processed through the Subic airport, then brought to Subic hotels for mandatory quarantine.

As of Feb. 6, the SBIA has generated more than P4.2 million in direct income from the PAL repatriation flights, Santos said.

Meanwhile, PAL consultant Charlie Yu expressed his gratitude to the SBMA, Bureau of Immigration (BOI), Bureau of Customs (BOC), Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Coast Guard, Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA), and the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) for handling the repatriation program via the Subic airport.

He also thanked quarantine hotels and other tourism stakeholders in the Subic Freeport for their support and service to the inbound OFWs and other returning Filipinos who flew home through Subic. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

Subic OFW flights now cover Diego Garcia

Repatriation flights by Philippine Airlines (PAL) for Filipinos working overseas now cover Diego Garcia, an island military outpost in the Indian Ocean where hundreds of Filipino contract workers are employed.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the first PAL flight from Diego Garcia to Subic arrived here on Monday, Dec. 13, after the Philippine flag carrier decided to expand it “Bayanihan” flights to bring home more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in time for the holidays.

The OFW flights via the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) began last July under the government’s repatriation program to assist Filipinos stranded abroad because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“With this, Subic is now connected to 10 cities and major destinations in the Indo-Pacific area. We are now the gateway for OFWs coming from the Middle East, as well as Asian ports,” said Eisma.

The areas with PAL connections to Subic include Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Doha in Qatar, Macau, Palau, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and now Diego Garcia.

SBMA Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations Ronnie Yambao said the latest PAL flight brought to Subic a total of 303 passengers, who are mostly contract workers from Diego Garcia.

One of them was Oscar Ebalan, a native of Masinloc, Zambales, who arrived with his son Aldean, also a contract worker employed by KBR Diego Garcia LLC, a military contractor which provides operations, maintenance, and logistics services in the island.

Ebalan said the OFW flight from Diego Garcia to Subic took more than seven hours non-stop, a more difficult long haul compared to the usual flights that normally made a brief stopover at Singapore.

“But we arrived safe and OK, and the arrival procedures at Subic went smoothly,” he said, adding that they expect to be home after the mandatory quarantine and the requisite RT-PCR test five days upon arrival here.

Eisma said the SBMA expects more OFW flights via Subic before the yearend, but stressed that none of these would originate from countries that the Philippine government has placed on its red list in view of the emergence of the Omicron virus variant.

“We can be assured that no passengers will be brought here from any red-listed country because the government has prohibited the inbound international travel of all persons from red-list areas regardless of vaccination status,” Eisma said.

Prior to flight from Diego Garcia, the Subic airport also received arrivals from Dubai—a total of 280 passengers on Dec. 10, and 269 passengers on Dec. 12, said SBMA airport manager Zharrex Santos.

The recent flights brought the number of OFW flights to Subic since July at a total of 45, with a total of 12,262 passengers processed at the SBIA, Santos also said. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

OFW repatriation flights continue via Subic Freeport

Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights to the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) under the government’s repatriation program for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will continue here until the yearend even as travel curbs were imposed by some countries to stem the spread of the latest Covid-19 variant Omicron.

For the first time on Sunday, two PAL aircraft arrived here within two hours of each other to bring home two more batches of OFWs from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, both cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The recent arrivals brought the OFW flights via Subic to a total of 42 and the passengers coming in through the Subic airport since July this year to a total of 11,410.

“The OFWs continue to be repatriated through Subic, and everything’s as normal as when the program started here in July,” Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Wilma T. Eisma said on Sunday.

“We can be assured that no passengers will be brought here from any red-listed country because the government has prohibited the inbound international travel of all persons from red-list areas regardless of vaccination status,” Eisma added.

The Philippines’ Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) had earlier placed South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique on the red list after the Omicron variant was identified in South Africa last November 25.

But as the variant was discovered in Europe days after, the IATF added to its list Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy effective November 28 until December 15.

The government had earlier said it planned to suspend measures to relax entry for vaccinated tourists because of the emergence of the Omicron variant, but the Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday that there was no reason to panic over the Omicron as there has been no sudden increase or clustering of cases lately.

Eisma also pointed out that the OFW repatriation program here is being handled carefully by the Department of Transportation, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and Bureau of Quarantine.

“We all see to it that IATF guidelines on health safety are strictly enforced while the repatriation program continues here,” she added.

According to SBMA Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations Ronnie Yambao, more PAL flights are expected this month because of the holiday season.

He said 10 OFW flights from the UAE were scheduled in Subic this December: the first on December 3 followed by two on December 5; then on

December 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, and 31.

So far, a total of 42 OFW flights had brought in 11,410 passengers, including returning overseas Filipinos, to the Subic Bay Freeport, said SBIA manager Zharrex Santos.

These included six flights in July, seven in August, 10 in September, five in October, 11 in November, and three so far in December, Santos said.

Upon arrival in Subic, OFWs and other returning Filipinos are required to stay in Subic hotels for a BOQ-supervised quarantine of up to 10 days. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

OFW flights revive Subic as global gateway

The frequent arrival here of Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights to bring home overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded abroad because of the Covid-19 pandemic has given the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) a new lease of life as a global gateway.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the use of Subic as an alternate port of entry for the government’s OFW Repatriation Program since July this year has resulted in increased international aircraft and passenger movements, as well as improved income for the airport.

“In the third quarter of 2021 alone, the OFW flights had provided the Subic airport P1.6 million in direct income, as well as P218.7 million in income for Subic hotels. But aside from the impact on revenue, we’re proving here that Subic can be a global gateway and that’s what’s more important from a strategic point of view,” Eisma said.

“We are continuing with the airport rehabilitation program that we started three years ago, and the successful OFW flights now are an indication that we have made substantial progress in upgrading SBIA facilities and equipment,” she added.

Among the completed upgrades were a new Doppler very high frequency omnidirectional range distance measuring equipment (DVOR/DME), an automated weather observation system (AWOS), an area navigation approach (RNAV), and new air-ground communication system for air traffic control.

Eisma said the increase in aircraft and passenger movements, as well as airport income here, defied the odds at a time when international air passenger traffic was down by 60 percent and airport revenues by 66 percent because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a report from the SBMA Port Operations Group, aircraft movement at the Subic airport in the third quarter of 2021 increased to 17,756, or by as much as 25 percent compared to the 14,220 recorded in the third quarter of last year.

While most of the movement were those of domestic aircraft, a total of 55 international flights landed in the months of July, August and September. These also resulted in increased movement of international passengers, from just 137 in the second quarter of 2021 to 5,800 in the third quarter.

“The increase in international passenger movement by 4,134% was attributed to the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and retuning overseas Filipinos (ROFs),” said Ronnie Yambao, SBMA senior deputy administrator for operations group.

Yambao added that in the same period, the Subic airport posted an actual revenue of P62.15 million, thus surpassing its revenue target of P49.52 million by 126 percent. The third quarter income was also 32 percent higher than that recorded in the same period last year.

The airport income was broken down into P40.48 million for leases, P21.62 million for airport fees, and P48,672 in royalty income.

Since July this year, when Subic became an alternate port for OFW repatriation, a total of 27 OFW flights had been flown to Subic by the Philippine Airlines, aside from nine that were diverted to Clark Airport during bad weather.

SBMA airport manager Zharrex Santos said that under the OFW program, the SBIA had handled a total of 9,159 international passengers consisting of 8,455 land-based and 421 sea-based OFWs, as well as 274 Filipino and nine foreign non-OFW passengers.

Santos said the latest PAL flight that brought in OFWs landed here in Subic on Tuesday, with 299 passengers from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

2 OFWs give birth while in Subic quarantine

Two returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were quarantined in a hotel here in Subic gave birth to healthy babies days after arrival from Saudi Arabia. 

This was one sidelight in the ongoing government repatriation program, which has tapped the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) as an entry point for Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights ferrying home workers and other returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the new mothers were among the 299 passengers who arrived last July 7 aboard PAL’s Flight PR5683 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Consistent with health protocols, the new arrivals were quarantined for at least seven days in accredited hotels and other accommodation facilities inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

However, Eisma said that on July 9, one of the workers in quarantine at the Vista Marina Hotel here, a 32-year-old resident of Cavite, went into labor and was brought by Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) personnel to a government hospital in Olongapo City where she gave birth.

The following day, July 10, another OFW under quarantine at the same hotel, this time a 36-year-old from North Cotabato, experienced labor pain and was also brought to the Olongapo hospital for childbirth.

“Our information from the One-Stop-Shop Command at the Subic airport was that both deliveries went well and that the mothers and their babies were healthy,” Eisma said.

“Following completion of the mandatory isolation and negative RT-PCR test results, they were soon discharged from the Subic quarantine facility,” she added.

As an alternate entry point for returning OFWs, Subic has received a total of four PAL flights since July 7, including the latest flight this morning that brought in 185 OFWs from Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The first PAL flight scheduled here for July 5 was diverted to the Clark Freeport due to strong tailwind.

Four more OFW flights by PAL are set to arrive in Subic on July 24, 25 and 27 and on August 3.

Subic became an alternate port of entry for OFWs and other returning overseas Filipinos in line with government policy to limit arrivals in all international airports in the country to just 1,500 passengers per day to comply with health protocols during the Covid-19 pandemic. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

PAL lands 2nd OFW flight at Subic airport

A Philippine Airlines (PAL) plane bringing home 299 returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) landed at the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) on Wednesday, marking the first time that a passenger flight again arrived here since 2011. 

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, who welcomed the arriving workers at the Subic tarmac, said PAL’s OFW flight was “a momentous occasion, as it marked the first time that the Subic airport served as an alternate entry point for OFWs wanting to return to the Philippines.”

“This is also the first time that a commercial flight arrived here in Subic after a decade of drought, the last one being the Astro Air flight that arrived here in 2011,” Eisma recalled.

Eisma said that it was more than a year ago when Senator Richard Gordon asked the government’s COVID-19 task force to open up Subic, Clark and Mactan airports to allow more passenger flights for Filipino migrant workers who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic and stranded in their host countries for months.

“After one year, here we are,” Eisma said. “And we hope that, aside from being able to help out in the repatriation of OFWs, this would be the start of regular passenger flights here in Subic,” the SBMA chief added.

PAL’s Flight PR5683 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia arrived here on Wednesday at 11:02 a.m. and was met with an inaugural water salute at the tarmac by a fire truck from the SBMA Fire Department.

The plane carried 293 OFWs, as well as four seamen and two returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).

Eisma said the 299 passengers will be quarantined for from seven to 10 days in hotels and other accommodation facilities inside the Subic Bay Freeport that are duly accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and certified by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ).

The flight on Wednesday was the second of six arrivals scheduled by PAL for Subic this month under the government’s program to facilitate the return of overseas Filipinos during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first PAL flight that was supposed to arrive in Subic on Monday was rerouted to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at the Clark Freeport Zone due to strong tailwinds. The plane, also originated from Dammam and carried 309 OFWs, two seamen, and one ROF.

The next flight schedules to Subic will be on July 15, 17, 25, and 27 with an average of 230 passengers in each of the PAL Airbus A330 flights.

Eisma said OFW flights to Subic is in line with the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to impose a limit for all international airports in the country to accommodate just 1,500 passengers per day. Because of this, PAL has distributed its flights to various airports to accommodate the market, she added.

The SBMA chief said earlier that the OFW arrivals would create “positive impact on local tourism that would also redound to the benefit of workers, business establishments, and service operators in our communities.”

She also said that accommodation facilities outside the Subic Bay Freeport may also benefit from any overflow that may ensue from the arrival of returning overseas workers via Subic. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More

Subic Freeport to receive PAL flights with returning OFWs

The Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) will be accepting rerouted Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) starting Monday, July 5, under a government program to facilitate the return of overseas Filipinos during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said six Philippine Airlines flights are expected to land at the SBIA this month to ferry home mostly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

The flights have been scheduled on July 5, 7, 15, 17, 25, and 27 with an average of 230 passengers in each of the PAL Airbus A330 flights to Subic.

“The arrival of OFWs via Subic is in line with the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to impose a limit for all international airports in the country to accommodate just 1,500 passengers per day,” Eisma explained on Friday.

Accordingly, PAL has distributed its flights to various airports to accommodate the market in accordance with its recovery plan, Eisma added.

“Once again, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone is in a unique position to be of service to the Filipino nation, particularly repatriated workers, who long to be home but were hindered by pandemic restrictions,” Eisma said.

The SBMA chief pointed out that Subic also began serving as a Crew-Change One-Stop-Shop hub since September last year, thereby helping bring home stranded Filipino seafarers or sending them back to work after some vacation.

“Our assistance, we are proud to add, would adequately help flesh out President Duterte’s policy that ‘no one should be left behind’,” Eisma added.

Under the PAL flights set-up, arriving passengers would be quarantined for seven to 10 days in Subic Bay Freeport hotels and accommodation facilities accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and certified by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ).

Eisma said this would create “positive impact on local tourism that would also redound to the benefit of workers, business establishments, and service operators in our communities.”

Accommodation facilities outside the Freeport may also have the opportunity to take in any overflow that may ensue, she added.

“I really hope this will be the start of something good not only for the Subic airport and the hotels in the Freeport, but also for the bigger community that helps keep the Subic economy running,” Eisma also said.

Meanwhile, SBMA OIC-Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations Ronnie Yambao said his office has been in close coordination with the BOQ to ensure that all health safety protocols would be in place and strictly enforced at the Subic airport for the arrival of PAL flights.

The SBMA has also synchronized its efforts with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to ensure seamless processing of passengers, as well as with PAL to meet their requirements, Yambao said.

He pointed out that the Subic airport is being upgraded since last year to accommodate passenger, as well as corporate aircraft.

He said the Subic agency is implementing this year a P91.3-million package consisting of 12 projects to upgrade equipment and improve facilities in the Subic airport. (MPD-SBMA)

Read More