Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas has requested budget airline Cebu Pacific to resume its direct flights from Iloilo to Hong Kong and Singapore, vice versa.
The request was made by Treñas in a letter addressed to Kirk Warren E. Patricio, the airport performance manager of the Cebu Pacific Iloilo Ground Operations Department.
According to the mayor, the “influx of requests from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and constituents with outbound flights to Singapore and Hong Kong” prompted him to write.
Their travel needs, the mayor stressed, “are unmet caused by long queues at the immigration and exorbitant travel expenses associated with multiple bookings on connecting flights.”
“While tourism continues to be one of the sectors hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic landscape here in Iloilo City perceives a continuing travel boom to the Asia-Pacific region. It would seemingly show that the demand for travel has not dampened consumers looking to make up for time lost to COVID-19 pandemic,” Treñas said.
“Amid the ongoing health crisis, local OFWs have rebounded strongly and drastically increased the boom in international travel alongside foreign employment offers to Filipinos,” he added.
The Iloilo International Airport suspended international flights in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It used to cater to flights to Hong Kong evety Monday and Friday and Singapore every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.IMT
