1 December 2020
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and budget airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) will be offering COVID-19 testing to their passengers before their flights beginning today.
PAL said it will be offering passengers departing from the country the convenience of its own RT-PCR testing center in Manila starting December 1 from 4,000 pesos, while all Cebu Pacific passengers going to General Santos City will have to undergo the airline's antigen rapid testing at the airport just before their flights starting December 3 for free during the two week trial periods.
Philippine Airlines
“Starting December 1, PAL ticket holders will enjoy a P500 discount from the PHP 4,500 regular rate,” PAL said.
The COVID-19 RT-PCR testing site is located at the Philippine Airlines Learning Center in Ermita, Manila with Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory as its DOH-accredited partner. The test results from PAL’s testing center will be released within 12 to 24 hours.
“PAL ticket holders may choose either a drive-thru or walk-in service option. The testing facility is open daily from Monday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with no noon break,” it said.
“Passengers will experience pre-departure convenience with the testing facility's guaranteed release of results within 24 hours,” it said.
PAL said travelers may pay in cash or card or through GCash, PayPal, WeChat Pay, or Alipay.
Upon entering the testing facility, PAL passengers must present their ID, PAL ticket, and QR code indicating completed registration on the PAL Passenger Profile and Health Declaration form.
Except for flights to the US, Canada, and Australia, all passengers must register and accomplish the online Passenger Profile and Health Declaration Form as early as five days before departure.
In the meantime, PAL has also partnered with other accredited laboratory and testing facilities to provide passengers exclusive and discounted testing fees and/or quicker release of results.
There are currently eight testing partners with more than 50 branches combined, available within Metro Manila and other Provinces like Cavite, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, Batangas, Iloilo, and Cebu.
The testing fee and release of results vary among testing partners.
To avail of the services of PAL's other testing partners, passengers must proceed to the testing facility and present their ID, PAL Ticket, and QR Code indicating completion of registration via the PAL Passenger Profile and Health Declaration Form.
Cebu Pacific
Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific said Test Before Boarding (TBB) antigen testing will reduce the risk of infection between testing and boarding, finding infected passengers in a more timely manner.
Only passengers with negative antigen test results will be allowed to board the CEB aircraft, the airline said, while those with positive results will be referred to another testing facility for confirmatory RT-PCR testing.
Cebu Pacific said TBB - to be done together with the General Santos City government and in coordination with the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory (PADL) - will run for a two-week trial period and free-of-charge during the pilot run.
Passengers in these covered flights will no longer have to take any other test prior to their flight, the airline said.
“We welcome this development through Cebu Pacific, because it opens up more people to the idea of traveling again. We believe this will be a breakthrough initiative, as it will allow our residents to feel more secure and not be wary of arriving passengers from Manila,” said Mayor Ronnel Rivera of General Santos City.
The rapid antigen test by Cebu Pacific is useless and waste of time and resources. Granting that this is free of charge, it gives people false results as this type of test is not recognized and can have as high as 50% error rate. Which means it is not an effective means to detect the ncov-19.
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