PAL makes vaccine delivery to VisMin

Philippine Airlines (PAL) airlifted vaccines to key areas in Visayas and Mindanao as part of its efforts to bring life-saving treatments to larger segments of the country’s population amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the airline flew 88,800 Sinovac vaccine doses on April 7. The flag carrier said 14,400 doses each went to Cebu and Davao, 36,000 doses went to Butuan and 24,000 doses went to Cagayan de Oro.

Since March 1 this year, PAL had airlifted nearly 500,000 vaccine doses from Manila to other parts of the country such as Legazpi, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Tacloban, Tagbilaran and Cotabato.

The local missions follow PAL’s delivery of 1 million Sinovac vaccine doses from Beijing to Manila last March 29. Those vaccines were purchased by the Philippine government.CommitmentThe local airline industry, badly hit by the pandemic-induced downturn, earlier committed to assist the government in its vaccine distribution efforts.

Budget airline Cebu Pacific earlier said it had deployed its cargo aircraft to bring vaccines to even remote destinations in the country.

Cebu Pacific has two ATR freighters, which can operate in airports in shorter runways, and a converted Airbus A330 cargo aircraft. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS