Friday, June 06, 2008 Cebu Pacific official says sorry for problem on luggage; offers passengers compensation
SOME passengers of a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Cebu from Singapore arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport early morning yesterday without their checked-in luggage.
About 137 pieces of checked-in luggage on the Singapore-Cebu flight were re-routed via Manila due to aircraft weight limitation, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing
and product Candice Iyog said in a statement yesterday.
Cebu Pacific billeted in hotels the affected passengers and those who still had to go to other destinations.
Iyog said the airline will provide compensation to passengers with immediate needs, such as those who do not have any clothes. She apologized for the incident.
The passengers arrived at 4 a.m. but the pieces of luggage were expected to arrive only at 2:30 p.m. yesterday.
“We prioritized boarding all of our passengers back to Cebu and we are doing our best to ensure that their luggage were delivered in the soonest possible time,” she said.
“We are working with the customs authorities for the release of their luggage in NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) and we will transit all left luggage to Cebu.”
RG Orense, Cebu Pacific corporate communications manager, told Sun.Star Cebu over the phone that there were 143 passengers on board flight 5J 548 and some arrived with their luggage.
He said he could not ascertain as of yesterday morning how many passengers did not arrive with their luggage. He added that all pieces of luggage are safe.
Orense said the airline will grant the requests of passengers who wanted their luggage delivered to their respective homes.
Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) professor Danny Cantor said passengers like him were greatly inconvenienced by what happened to their luggage.
Cantor said he pitied those who had connecting flights or who had to take vessels to their home provinces.
“The Cebu Pacific people did not tell us that our luggages were rerouted to Manila. We were surprised and alarmed when they arrived in Cebu and our luggages were nowhere to be found, only to be told that they were diverted to Manila. It was really a great inconvenience for us,” Cantor told Sun.Star Cebu.
Cantor said he is consulting with other passengers and their lawyers to discuss charges they can file against the Cebu Pacific management. (LAP/EOB)
