SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—After being diverted to Clark on its first attempt on Monday, the Philippine Airlines (PAL) successfully landed a flight here on Wednesday to bring home the second batch of Filipino migrant workers that it would ferry to Subic from the Middle East this month.
PAL Flight PR5683 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia arrived at the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) at 11:02 a.m. and was met by an SBMA fire truck with a water salute, a traditional ritual used to mark the first flight of an airline to an airport.
The Airbus A330 aircraft carried 293 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), as well as four seafarers and two returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, who welcomed the arriving workers along with PAL consultant Charlie Yu and SBIA General Manager Zharrex Santos, said Wednesday’s flight marked the first time that Subic 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 pointed out that Subic had readied its airport for the use of returning OFWs after Sen. Richard J. Gordon urged the government’s Covid-19 task force in May last year to open up Subic, along with Clark and Mactan airports, to allow more passenger flights for OFWs displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“After one year, here we are,” Eisma said on Wednesday. “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.
She also said the 299 passengers will be quarantined for from seven to 10 days in Subic Freeport accommodation facilities that were duly accredited by the Department of Tourism and certified by the Bureau of Quarantine.
Flight PR5683 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 arrived here on Monday but was unable to land due to strong tailwinds. It was subsequently diverted to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in the nearby Clark Freeport.
The first flight also came from Dammam and carried 309 OFWs, two seamen, and one ROF.
Eisma said PAL has scheduled the next flight to Subic on July 15, 17, 25, and 27, as the airline distributed its flights to various airports to accommodate the market in line with the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board to limit all international airports in the country to just 1,500 passengers per day.
The SBMA chief earlier welcomed the OFW arrivals here, saying it would create “a positive impact on local tourism that would also redound to the benefit of workers, business establishments, and service operators in our communities.”