SWEEPER FLIGHTS. Only commercial sweeper flights to and from Negros Oriental are allowed amid the Covid-19 pandemic. CAAP local chief and Dumaguete-Sibulan airport manager Mark Diamaoden said on Friday (Oct. 9, 2020) that "tourism" flights are still banned as the threat of Covid-19 persists. (PNA file photo by Judy Flores Partlow)
DUMAGUETE CITY – Even as quarantine restrictions have started to ease up in other places in the country, the province of Negros Oriental still does not allow “tourism” commercial flights as the province extends its ban amid the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Mark Diamaoden, local chief of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and Dumaguete-Sibulan airport manager, said in an interview Friday that only commercial “sweeper” flights can land in Negros Oriental at present.
The provincial government through its Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) had asked CAAP not to resume “normal operations” and to also regulate the number of sweeper flights to contain the spread of the virus, he said.
The sweeper flights that are allowed at the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport are also commercial, as passengers have to pay for their airfare. However, these are special flights for locally stranded individuals, returning overseas Filipinos, and even businessmen who are classified as authorized persons outside of residence (APOR).
Diamaoden said that during a meeting with the provincial IATF, it was discussed that resumption of regular commercial flights could be possible once the molecular diagnostic laboratory of Negros Oriental becomes fully operational to make testing for Covid-19 faster and more convenient for those coming to the province.
The molecular laboratory at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) is still in its final stages and awaiting a license to operate from the Department of Health.
The schedule for the sweeper flights of Philippine Airlines is every Tuesday and Friday, and for Cebu Pacific, every Wednesday and Thursday, with only one flight a day said Diamaoden.
He said that once regular commercial flights resume, these have to be spaced out in terms of schedule, as the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport can only accommodate one Air Bus aircraft at one time, and the passenger terminal has also slashed its seating capacity by half due to pandemic restrictions on physical distancing.
There are other things to consider, such as verification of documentary requirements of inbound passengers and the disinfection activities after each flight, he added. (PNA)
