5J suspends all flights 19 March to 12 April with PR also huge changes

[Melburnian1]

In Philippines, the President has instiituted a 'sort of' lockdown of Metro Manila on the island of Luzon.

Here's what LCC Cebu Pacific has announced today (it presently flies four nights a week to SYD and three to MEL ex MNL:

Over the past several days, we have seen a rapid escalation of developments surrounding the spread of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The aviation industry - including Cebu Pacific - has been significantly impacted by COVID-19. We have had to cancel flights to key international markets, and more recently, majority of our domestic operations due to community quarantines and air travel restrictions. Today, we have decided to suspend all our Cebu Pacific and Cebgo domestic and international passenger flights from March 19 to April 14, 2020, while the Enhanced Community Quarantine measures of the Philippine government are in effect. It is a difficult, but necessary decision, as part of our efforts to ensure the safety of our passengers and operations teams, and to comply with stricter quarantine measures, and air, sea, and land restrictions - in the Philippines and other jurisdictions. On March 18, we will operate our last flights until April 14, and these will be from Manila to Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, Taipei, and Bali and vice versa. We will work with the authorities to assist in flying stranded passengers in and out of the Philippines. Prior to the Enhanced Community Quarantine, we operated 2,800 weekly flights to over 60 destinations across Asia, Australia and the Middle East, the most of any Philippine carrier. Below is a summary of the options for our guests on cancelled flights due to COVID-19. These options may be processed online via the “Manage Booking” portal in the Cebu Pacific website bit.ly/CEBmanageflight.

We are working round-the-clock to ensure guests can conveniently manage their bookings online, and our customer care and frontliner teams are on hand to assist. FAQs may also be found here: bit.ly/CEBCOVID-19FAQ During this flight suspension period, we will base our 75-strong fleet in three operating hubs: Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL), Cebu-Mactan International Airport (CEB), and the Clark International Airport (CRK). We continue to monitor the situation and will provide updates as soon as possible. Let me assure you that this situation, while difficult and unprecedented, will pass. With your much-needed support, we will emerge from this stronger, so we can continue making moments happen for each and every Juan. Please allow me to thank you for your patience, understanding, and support. May I also request you to join me in thanking our flight, operational and frontliner teams for doing all they can to assist our guests. We look forward to flying you to more places again soon, but everyone’s safety is the priority at this time. Stay safe everyone! Until your next Cebu Pacific flight,

Lance Gokongwei Similarly, Philippine Airlines (PR) is making major changes soon. I posted its 17 March 2020 information under 'cheap international airfares' in the AFF 'travel news' section so to avoid duplication, I won't repeat it here unless someone else requests that. With likely QFi cuts,it's not hard to see no flights on offer between Australia and this quick growing Asian nation(with many Filipinos now residing in Oz.) That nation may soon not be the only one lacking airlinks with Australia. Time will tell.