Airline apologizes to Bacolod mayor

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Cebu Pacific apologized to Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez for the delayed Manila-Bacolod flight on July 26, 2023 due to bad weather.

Benitez was among the passengers of the flight and ranted on social media about what he claimed is poor information dissemination and handling of its delayed flights.

In a letter to Mayor Benitez signed by Lei Apostol, Cebu Pacific Vice President for Customer Service Operations, and Michael Shau, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, explained that bad weather impacted their network performance.

The mayor posted the letter on his social media page.

“Prolonged rain showers were caused by the southwest monsoon and impacted ramp handling across Manila, and across the network, causing delays and consequential effects on our flights, and the On-Time Performance (OTP) to suffer,” Apostol and Shau said.

“While there were announcements at 8:16 p.m. and another at 8:37 p.m., to inform passengers of the delay, we note that the announcements should be improved, and we will work on this together with our ground handler,” they added.

Benitez, who attended the State of the Nation Address and the 75th National Executive Board Meeting of the League of Cities of the Philippines, cited the “poor information dissemination, uncooperative staff, airport monitors showed different departure times, and gate assignments changed several times.”

“Our carriers should be more considerate of their passengers and handling information about the flight should be of utmost priority. People left hanging is the worst,” the mayor pointed out.

As to the inconsistency in the Flight Information Display System (FIDS), Apostol and Shau further explained that two yellow FIDS are managed by CEB, while the third is managed by MIAA (Manila Airport International Authority).

“The FIDS of CEB reflects a more accurate activity, as this is connected to our network, which provides live updates on flight status. As for the remaining FIDS board with MIAA, we are pleased to let you know that MIAA has agreed to put measures to reflect parallel and accurate flight information,” Apostol and Shau said.

“We would like to thank you for your feedback and observations, so we can further improve communication and information dissemination with our passengers,” they further said in their letter to Benitez.