Instead of chartered flights, Philippine embassy in Doha has announced that it will return to the usual commercial flights as the mode of repatriating Overseas Filipinos in extreme need of assistance and in difficult situations.
“The Filipino Community in Qatar is informed that the Embassy has already wound up its special repatriation programme through chartered flights, and has accordingly suspended the online registration link for the chartered flights given the current availability and frequency of commercial flights being operated by commercial airlines in Doha, such as but not limited to Qatar Airways and the Philippine Airlines,” the embassy said in a recent Facebook post.
The embassy also noted “high ‘no show’ and ‘back-out’ rates of passengers in the recent chartered flights, which make these flights no longer cost-efficient”.
“It may help to know that Qatar Airways is now operating 30 weekly commercial flights to the Philippines – catering to the cities of Clark, Cebu and Manila – while the Philippine Airlines is operating three weekly commercial flights to Manila,” the embassy added.
The embassy, in collaboration with the Qatar government, arranged several chartered flights with the help of Philippine Airlines, as well as a number of commercial flights, for the repatriation of Filipino expatriates in Qatar in previous months amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The embassy stressed that it continues to provide assistance to those who wish to be repatriated.
The embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labour Office thanked His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and its Search and Follow Up Department, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, the Hamad International Airport, and Qatar Airways for their invaluable assistance.
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