Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have cancelled their flights to Taiwan following the Philippine government’s decision to expand a travel ban to include Taiwan in an effort to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Earlier this month, the Philippine government imposed a travel ban on visitors coming from China as well as from Hong Kong and Macau.
The government has now expanded the ban to include Taiwan. The expanded ban applies to anyone, except Filipino citizens and permanent residents, coming either directly from Taiwan or anyone who has visited Taiwan over the past 14 days.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have suspended some of their flights between Taiwan and the Philippines starting from today “until further notice”.
The following flights between Manila and Taipei have been cancelled:
- Philippine Airlines: PR890, PR891, PR894, PR895
- Cebu Pacific: 5J310, 5J311 (from February 12), 5J312, 5J313
Both airlines said they will offer full refunds and service fees for rebooking and rerouting will be waived.
Taiwanese carrier Eva Air said both its Taipei-Cebu service (BR281) and its Taipei-Manila (BR271) service operated normally today (February 11). However, its Taipei-Manila (BR277) service, which was scheduled for later in the afternoon, has been cancelled and passengers who have booked this flight will be re-accommodated to flight BR261 scheduled to depart this evening.
As of 12am today, according to mainland China’s National Health Commission and Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, mainland China has reported 42,638 cases of the coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan, while Hong Kong has reported 42 cases, Macau has 10 cases and Taiwan has reported 18 cases of the virus.
The Philippines so far has three confirmed cases and one death, according to the World Health Organisation.
