Thursday, October 02, 2008 Manila flights continue despite typhoon
MAJOR airline companies went on with their scheduled Manila flights at the Davao International Airport even as typhoon "Pablo" hit the country's capital Wednesday.
This is so because what started off as a typhoon became just a tropical depression when it hit land.
Except for minor delays, Philippine Airlines (PAL) continued to service the Davao-Manila route and vice versa. Based on its online flight status, the 7:30 a.m. flight of Pal was able to take off at 7:26 a.m. Its 1:25 p.m. flight, meantime, was only able to leave at 1:50 p.m. incurring a delay of 25 minutes.
Its late night flight of 9:35 p.m. was delayed for an hour, leaving the Davao International Airport at already 10:35 p.m.
Cebu Pacific also did not issue any flight cancellations Wednesday for its flights from Davao City to Metro Manila.
Typhoon "Pablo" was estimated by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pag-asa) to be hovering over Southern Luzon on Wednesday and was headed for Zambales with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometer per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 80 kph. It is forecast to move Northwest at 19 kph.
"Pablo" is projected to leave the Philippine area of responsibility by end of the week. (CPM)
