PAL brings home two planeloads of OFWs

MANILA, Philippines -- Two repatriation flights dispatched by Philippine Airlines (PAL) to Crete, Greece, arrived within hours of each other Thursday morning carrying a total of 731 Filipinos, including 15 infants.

A statement issued by PAL said the airline company’s President Jaime J. Bautista and executive vice president Vivienne K. Tan joined government officials in welcoming 368 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) onboard PR 009 which arrived at 1:00a.m. and 363 passengers on PR 011 which arrived shortly before noon.

For a complete list of Filipino repatriates who boarded the two PAL flights, you can log on to www.palfliesyouhome.com.

PAL’s two extended range Boeing 777s touched down at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 10 hours apart after their non-stop 11-hour journey from Heraklion Airport, Crete. Both flights were manned by two sets of pilots, 13 management cabin attendants and four technical crew, the statement said.

"As the Philippine flag carrier, PAL is happy to be of service to our countrymen, especially in times of crises," Bautista told returning OFWs at the arrival area of NAIA Terminal 2.

PAL, in close coordination with the departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Labor and Employment (DOLE), was able to deploy its two long-range B777 aircraft to repatriate OFWs after securing special permits for humanitarian reasons from different countries to overcome a prevailing ban on all Philippine carriers from flying anywhere in Europe imposed in March 2010 by the European Union.

Since the Libyan crisis erupted, PAL prepared immediately for the repatriation flights chartered by DOLE, securing necessary overfly and landing permits, including ground handling arrangement, while waiting for government’s final instructions where and when to pick up the distressed Filipinos.

As the pioneer national flag carrier, PAL had operated on many occasions special flights to evacuate Filipinos in troubled areas, including, among others: the 2008 social unrest in Bangkok, Thailand; the 1990 first Gulf War – the largest to date encompassing 30 flights and more than 10,000 evacuated Filipinos; the 1989 war in Lebanon; and the 1980 Iran-Iraq war that displaced more than a thousand Filipinos who fled to Jordan and Kuwait. (report from Inquirer.net)