The Ninoy Aquino International Airport closed for most of Thursday
because of typhoon Milenyo. Operations are expected to normalize
Friday.
The airport shut down beginning 10:40 a.m. as
the typhoon approached with 150-kilometer-per-hour winds.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) canceled
more than half of its domestic domestic flights as well as a number
of services to nearby Asian points as the storm headed straight for
Metro Manila.
PAL canceled 38 round-trip flights to 13
domestic destinations —53 percent of its scheduled 72 domestic
services. The airline company’s international operations also
supended such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Busan, while
services to Nagoya, Osaka (Kansai) and Tokyo (Narita) were reset
to Friday.
A handful of PAL flights scheduled to return to
Manila from various domestic and regional points today were put on
hold as authorities monitored the weather situation. Affected were
the return services from Tokyo, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City,
Beijing, Osaka, Fukuoka and Taipei. Cebu Pacific Air also postponed
all its international and domestic flights.
The typhoon also affected domestic trips of
Asian Spirit Airline like flights bound for San Jose, Occidental
Mindoro and its Manila-Legazpi City-Manila trip.
Negros Navigation Company Inc. also suspended
trips of vessels Peter the Apostle bound for Bacolod and Iloilo and
San Pablo bound for Coron and Puerto Princesa in Palawan.
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