FROM three domestic destinations last week, Cebu Pacific and Cebgo said they intend to operate local flights to 17 more destinations this week until the end of the month as they try to rebuild their local route network.

Cebu Pacific Director for Corporate Communications Charo Logarta-Lagamon told BusinessWorld in a phone message on Sunday that the “planned” destinations are “subject to government approval.”

In an advisory e-mailed to reporters late Saturday night, budget carrier Cebu Pacific, operated by Cebu Air, Inc., and its subsidiary Cebgo said that “as part of the gradual rebuilding of [their] domestic route network,” they “plan to mount domestic flights to 20 destinations from June 8 to 30, 2020.”

The Gokongwei-led airlines intend to mount flights between Manila and Dipolog, Pagadian, and Zamboanga from June 8 to 30.

From June 9 to 30, they plan to operate flights between Manila and Masbate.

They also hope to operate Manila-Tablas, Manila-Davao, and Cebu-Clark flights from June 10 to 30.

From June 16 to 30, the airlines plan to operate flights between Manila and nine more local destinations such as Bacolod, Cotabato, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Catalan, Roxas, Tacloban, Bohol, and Busuanga.

They are also studying to mount flights from June 16 to 30 between Cebu and Davao.

Cebu Pacific and Cebgo operated flights between Manila and Naga, Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro last week when the government eased air travel restrictions between areas placed under a more relaxed community quarantine.

“This is a developing situation and we will have an agile approach to rebuilding our network schedule. It may be necessary for us to add or cancel flights at last minute given the fluidity of restrictions and directives from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), the Local Government Units (LGUs) and other concerned government agencies,” they said.

“We will provide updates through our website and official social media accounts and endeavor to inform our passengers in a timely manner.” — Arjay L. Balinbin