• Cebu Pacific will pilot the Test Before Boarding initiative, providing Manila passengers antigen testing at the airport before boarding their flight for General Santos City
• During the December 3 to 14 pilot run, all Cebu Pacific passengers flying from Manila to General Santos will be required to undergo TBB free of charge
• Passengers with negative results will be allowed to board the flight; those with positive results will be referred for real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing
Cebu Pacific is set to pilot on December 3 a program that will administer antigen testing to passengers conveniently at the airport in Manila just before their flight to General Santos City.
The pilot run of Test Before Boarding (TBB) will be conducted by the carrier with the local government of General Santos and the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory (PADL). TBB aims to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection by finding infected passengers before they board their flight, Cebu Pacific said in a statement.
All Cebu Pacific passengers flying from Manila to General Santos will be required to undergo TBB free-of-charge during the pilot run from December 3 to 14.
Passengers no longer need to take any other test prior to their flight, according to an executive order of the local government of General Santos.
Only guests with negative results will be allowed to board the flight, while those with positive results will be referred to another testing facility for confirmatory real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing (RT-PCR).
“We welcome this development through Cebu Pacific, because it opens up more people to the idea of traveling again. We believe this will be a breakthrough initiative, as it will allow our residents to feel more secure and not be wary of arriving passengers from Manila,” General Santos City mayor Ronnel Rivera said.
Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and customer experience Candice Iyog said: “We look forward to the results of this pilot so we can pave the way for a more confident restart of non-essential travel and a standardization of requirements across all Philippine destinations.”
Passengers must fill out an electronic passenger information form (E-PIF) through https://www.padlab.ph/DLS/ePIF and pre-register via http://tapat.gensantos.gov.ph/tapatsystem/registration/#details at least 24 hours before their flight.
They must also secure a travel authority to be allowed entry into General Santos City, and check in online before going to the airport as part of contactless flight procedures.
At the airport, passengers must proceed to the testing facility located at Level 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 five hours before departure to give ample time for testing procedures. They will be called their turn for the collection of swab samples, with results released within 30 minutes.
The Department of Health-accredited PADL will provide passengers with a certificate showing the results of their antigen test.
Passengers with negative results can then proceed straight to gate or bag-drop counters until an hour before the scheduled time of departure.
DOH rules as of October 6 allow the use of rapid antigen testing as an alternative to RT-PCR tests for suspected COVID-19 cases, including symptomatic and asymptomatic close contacts who fit the definition.
Antigen tests may also be used for probable cases in a community or hospital setting with insufficient PCR testing capacity, places where a quick turnaround time is needed for patients, or during incidents of a community outbreak “for quicker case finding.”
Cebu Pacific said TBB is just one initiative in its multi-layered approach to safety. These include extensive daily disinfection of aircraft, High Efficiency Particulate Air filters on board that can filter out 99.99% of viruses, frequent cleaning of passenger surfaces at the airport and inflight, and enhanced self-service online portals so travelers can easily manage their flights.
Strict contactless flight procedures are also in place, such as boarding pass scanning, required online check-in and self-bag tag capabilities.
Cebu Pacific currently operates flights to destinations such as Boracay, Bohol, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Iloilo and Palawan. It also operates flights to six international destinations including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Dubai.
