ARBITRARY changes in Cebu Pacific Air flight schedules due to an “aircraft situation” led to frayed nerves at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Wednesday, as travelers with scheduled appointments and connecting flights sought to get seats on the next available flights.

Mary Jed Adriano, Cebu Air Inc. duty manager at the airport, said one Cebu-Manila flight (5J568) was cancelled, while another, 5J578, was overbooked. She did not give the number of affected passengers.

Airlines are allowed to overbook by 10 percent to offset possible losses for no-shows, said Elvin Quiray of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

Quiray said Cebu Pacific Air advised them about an aircraft situation, which he said usually means some technical problems.

Lawyer James Sayson, who has a luncheon meeting in Manila and a connecting flight to Bangkok later in the day, said he and his wife waited in line for about an hour before an airline personnel announced that the flight was cancelled.

“I could understand if this happened March 6,” he said, referring to the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the Tagaytay radar on March 6. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)