Lawmakers seek probe into ‘unfair’ airline practices, flight cancellations

MANILA, Philippines—Eight lawmakers have sought an investigation into what they considered as questionable and disadvantageous policies and practices of airline companies with respect to flight cancellations and delays, among others.

Authors of Resolution No. 1634 asked the House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation to look into the policies and practices on flight delays/cancellations, fees, charges and refunds “to prevent undue and unnecessary inconvenience to airline passengers and travelers.”

Signatories to the resolution were Representatives Carol Jayne Lopez of the You Against Corruption and Poverty Party-list Group; Seth Frederick Jalosjos (Zamboanga del Norte); Gabriel Luis Quisumbing (Cebu); Lord Allan Jay Velasco (Marinduque), Mark Aaron Sambar (PBA Party List); Romeo Jalosjos Jr. (Zamboanga Sibugay, 2nd District); Sherwin Tugna (CIBAC Party List); and Jonathan Yambao (Zamboanga Sibugay, 1st District).

They said the resolution was prompted by mounting complaints from their constituents considering air travel has become the preferred mode of transportation for long distance travel.

The resolution said that while the “budget fare” promos have encouraged domestic and foreign travels, many travelers have complained of flight delays/cancellations as well as fees/charges/refunds simply because customers failed to read the fine print provisions in their tickets or that these were not clearly explained to them when they bought the tickets.

“It seems everyone has their own horror stories to tell relative to their nightmarish experiences with airlines companies,” Jalosjos said.

Jalosjos spoke about the experience of his two constituents who got a P5,600 promo fare for a Zamboanga-Manila-Zamboanga trip for two persons but ended up spending P12,000 in penalties on the way back to Zamboanga after arriving 10 minutes late before the check-in counter of a local airline company.

Aside from the allegedly exorbitant penalties on late, no-show passengers and those who re-book their flights, other complaints involved no-refund policies 24 hours before the flight; as much as five months delay in the release of refunds; unannounced change of destinations; poor customer service at check-in counters, online and through telephone; flight delays without timely announcements; and no comfort given in terms of food or hotels to passengers who suffer long flight delays.

“Some of our poor constituents feel as if they are ‘hostaged’ by these questionable policies and are powerless to fight the mega-airline companies,” Quisumbing said.

The congressmen said that airline companies operating locally included Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, Airphil Express, Zest Airways, Pacific Pearl Airways and Spirit of Manila, among others.

“It seems that they are penalizing us for every imaginable infraction in our contract of carriage but we get no compensation if they fly late or change flight destinations without informing us,” said Lopez, who had her landing destination transferred from General Santos to Davao at night.

Tugna, a lawyer, said the resolution was all about “fairness” in the dealings between two contracting parties. He believed that the traveling public was being shortchanged in their dealings with the giant airline companies.

“Unfortunately it seems that the whole airport transport service is boiling down to a mere business scheme and competition among the airlines fighting for air dominance with little regard toward how the little people feel or are affected … ,” Sambar said. –Cynthia D. Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer