Cebu Pacific gets reprieve

Congress won’t hastily revoke the franchise to operate of Cebu Pacific Airlines even if the carrier messed up schedules and bookings on Christmas Eve, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and exhausted, Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento of Western Samar, vice chairman of the House transportation committee, said on Friday.

The franchise that Congress granted to Cebu Pacific states that “except in cases of force majeure and whenever weather conditions permit, the grantee should maintain scheduled and/or non-scheduled and/or chartered air transport services between any and all points and places throughout the Philippines and other countries at such frequencies as traffic needs may require, provided, however, that at least 25 percent of all its frequencies shall be for the domestic market.”