By HENRY EMPEÑO | July 2, 2021

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — 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.

Six PAL flights are expected to land at the Subic airport this month to ferry home mostly overseas workers, said SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma.

The flights are 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 arrivals will be mostly overseas Filipino workers, as well as other returning overseas Filipinos from Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

“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 address the demand in accordance with its recovery plan, Eisma added.

With the OFW flights, Eisma said Subic is once more “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.”

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’,” she also said.

Under the scheduled PAL flights here, arriving passengers would be quarantined for seven to 10 days in Subic 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,” said Eisma.

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.

Yambao said 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 its requirements.

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

Yambao added that 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. ~