By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The provincial government of Negros Occidental has offered their help in repairing several of the equipment at the Bacolod-Silay Airport following the resumption of regular scheduled flights.

Provincial administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said they visited the airport earlier this week and during one of their inspections they noticed that the escalators located in the gates occupied by Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific were no longer working.

According to Diaz, they will assist the airport by repairing the broken escalators so that it would be more presentable to the arriving passengers.

With RT-PCR tests no longer required for arriving passengers, Diaz said the Provincial Health Office (PHO) personnel assigned in the airport to conduct swab tests on arriving passengers will now be pulled out.

Replacing the PHO personnel will be equipment which will scan the passengers’ S-PaSS registration and vaccination cards.

He said the PHO personnel will be reassigned in the province’s vaccination program.

As for the current arrivals, Diaz said the planes are 90 to 100 percent full for both PAL and Cebu Pacific, while AirAsia Philippines is set to resume its daily flights in December as long as the province maintains its current COVID-19 alert level.

At present, Negros Occidental is at Alert Level 2 and is currently allowing one regular scheduled passenger flight daily for each airline operating the Manila-Bacolod route.

Previously, Diaz said they are also preparing for an expected influx of travelers who will be going home in December to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Day in the province./DGB, WDJ