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After experiencing the force of Typhoon Frank cut across the country and seeing for ourselves, right from our balcony, the effects it had on airport operations at Manila, it felt very assuring, listening to the words of the homily at the 5:30 afternoon Mass at the chapel at Merville Homes, Paranaque.
Latest navigation technology and pilot confidence in the aircraft systems have shown how, even in the harshest weather conditions, an airplane can always land at its airport destination. Of course, when the wind limitations have been exceeded and the pilots could no longer control the aircraft, there is no choice but to divert and land somewhere else. This happened when Typhoon Frank was at its worst last Saturday night.
I made calls to Mactan to make sure everything was ready for the airplanes that could not land at Manila. The day before, Cebu too had strong and gusty winds and heavy rain; but the airport was never closed to traffic. As a result of the closure at Manila, we had from PAL: one 747-400, two PAL Airbus 340s and an Airbus 320 that came from LA, San Francisco and Guam, and from Cebu Pacific: 319s and 320s coming from Asian destinations. In addition, four Asian Spirit aircraft were evacuated to Cebu. These and the aircraft on the ground with flights from Mactan were cancelled, filling up the apron space of the airport.
The passengers of all PAL flights waited inside the aircraft until clearance was given to take to the skies again toward the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Those whose destination was actually Cebu, had the thrill of their lives when they were allowed to come down, go through the arrival immigration and customs protocols here, to finally come home to their families. Cebu Pacific had their passengers go down to wait in airport lounges 2 and 6, to board again when Manila cleared.
It is a blessing that Cebu sits right at the middle of our country’s 7,107 islands. I have mentioned the reasons why travelers choose to go more and more to Cebu. In addition to these reasons, the weather all year round is great, storms and typhoons seldom pass here and Cebu is far from any volcanic or seismic activity.
But the greatest asset is the people – a mixture of Malay, Chinese, Hispanic and even American ancestry – a blend of traditional conservatism, entrepreneurial industriousness, youthful enthusiasm and goal oriented seriousness. It is easy to be at home in Cebu with such friendliness and many carefree moments.
There are, however, many more things to be done in infrastructure development: roads, bridges, waterways, airport expansion and the integration of these multi-modal transport systems. Many of these are in the drawing board and the process is a long one.
At the Mactan Cebu International Airport, as of last count, we continue to have 70 international flights weekly and we just hit the 285 mark in the number of domestic flights a week. We look forward to the resumption of the Cebu-Shanghai flights and the increased numbers of PAL Express Q400 and Cebu Pacific ATR Turbo-prop aircraft home porting in Cebu.
