PAL Brings Home Folks Stranded in Afghanistan

8 September 2021 

 

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines has brought back stranded Overseas Foreign Workers in Afghanistan back home to Manila today under mandatory Repatriation Flight spearheaded by the Department of Foreign Affairs.  They were transported by A321 (RP-C9934) long range aircraft. The government has issued Alert Level 4 (mandatory evacuation/repatriation) for the whole of Afghanistan in August 15 due to large scale internal conflict in the country. The initial 35 Filipino workers were earlier evacuated to Doha, Qatar where they were flown by chartered PAL flight to Manila arriving August 17 and another 40 arriving August 21. Those evacuated to Islamabad in Pakistan were sheltered in the Philippine Embassy pending the arrival of other stranded Filipinos who was evacuated late from Kabul.Islamabad International Airport handled 450 evacuation flights from Afghanistan as the airport became the centre of the military and special commercial flights for coalition troops and citizens of western countries withdrawing from Kabul.

PAL Aborts Direct Kabul Airlift

19 Thursday 2021

The Philippine Airlines (PAL) mandatory evacuation flight directly to Kabul chartered by the Philippine government failed to depart Tuesday night after after hordes of panicked Afghans wanting to escape the Talibans overran the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul Sunday, closing its airport from both commercial and military flights.

The chartered A330-300 flight from Manila via Dubai, would have flown remaining Filipino Overseas Workers (OFWs) back home Tuesday after the US security forces granted the Philippines emergency landing rights Sunday to repatriate its expats home, but chaos at the airport Monday prompted the Americans, who are controling air traffic in Kabul, to close the airport until runway and taxiways are cleared of people and other potential flight hazards. The US military suspended the airlifting for 72 hours to clear the airport ground of thousands of Afghans.

US security forces has managed to secure the airport Tuesday morning and re-opened it for traffic by noon time, with Turkish Airlines B777 leaving Kabul to Istanbul. Affected  slots from Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were moved accordingly.

DFA assistant secretary Eduardo Meñez, on the repatriation delays, said on Tuesday, that they are facing very "challenging conditions" to get their citizens out, and has no clue on the rescheduled dates. He said they are coordinating with the US Embassy in Manila as to resumption of the aborted flight.

According to DFA personnel in Islamabad, who wishes not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, disclosed that aborted flight might be accommodated Thursday night at the earliest to Friday evening at the latest. 

The DFA in Manila said the Philippine Embassy in Pakistan is in touch with all Filipinos in Afghanistan who have given their contact details, and advised everyone “to remain ready to move when opportunities to leave arise.”

PAL To Fly Another Repatriation Flight To Lebanon

24 September 2020

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will fly another repatriation flight to Lebanon tomorrow, but this time will bring 5,000 boxes of relief packages from the Philippines to Beirut to help the nation devastated by port explosion and economic turmoil that plague the country.

Part of the relief goods will come from the Lucio Tan Group of companies, which consists 3,000 boxes of surgical masks, 27,500 face shields and 1,000 boxes of Vitamin C.

The DFA-chartered B777-300ER (RP-C7778) flight (PR8680) is expected to bring home around 300 distressed Filipinos from Lebanon on a 12 hour journey. The repatriation team will be led by Chief of Presidential Protocol and Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Robert Eric A. Borje.

Gov't Charters A380 For OFWs

19 August 2020

The Philippine Government charters Airbus A380-800 of Emirates Airlines to bring 405 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and their families from around the Middle East home. The plane landed at Clark International Airport around 3:26pm from Dubai.

The flight arrival coincided with the 30th Anniversary on the establishment of Emirates Airlines route to the Philippines.