Sunday, June 29, 2008 Urge airline to shape up, Medellin council asks PB
DESPITE assurances from Cebu Pacific Air officials, the Medellin, town council still wanted “concrete changes” to be instituted against the airline’s “poor, inefficient and unsystematic” customer service.
The town council has passed a resolution asking the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) to urge Cebu Pacific to improve its services, which drew numerous criticisms from passengers.
PB Member Agnes Magpale said she already did “so as not to jeopardize the tourism industry of the Province of Cebu.”
Medellin Vice Mayor Michael Miranda had sought the PB’s assistance over his “very bad” experience with the airline company.
Delayed
Last May 8, he booked a Manila-Cebu flight, and took a nap when told that it was delayed.
But when Miranda woke up, the airplane allegedly already flew to Cebu.
Miranda got to Cebu only in the evening after asking for help from the Cebu governor’s office.
Magpale was concerned because Cebu Pacific’s alleged poor services will affect the province’s “delivery of efficient and effective tourism services.”
“In order to improve the tourism industry and increase the influx of local and foreign tourists in the Province of Cebu, it is deemed necessary for all the airline companies to improve…customer services and avoid long-delayed flight schedules,” Magpale said in her measure.
Good name
The town council said the airline company is supposed to be carrying the “good name and image” of the Province. Instead, it committed numerous transgression since introducing its “promo fare packages.”
There is also now a clamor for the company to change its name by excluding “Cebu.”
“If the same treatment to its passengers will continue and remain uncorrected, then we can just imagine the incalculable damage and impact that the said airline company can bring to Cebu Province,” the town council said.
And complaints continue even after Miranda’s experience with the company.
Cebu-bound passengers from Singapore arrived at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport last June 5 without their checked-in luggage.
Cebu Pacific reportedly re-routed to Manila about 137 pieces of luggage on the Singapore-Cebu flight.
The passengers got their luggage only at 2:30 p.m., or over 10 hours after landing at 4 a.m.
Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and product, had said that what happened was due to the aircraft’s weight limitation.
She apologized for the incident, and said Cebu Pacific attended to the passengers’ immediate needs. (GMD)
