MANILA – As the video footages and reports about a man who was forcefully dragged out of an overbooked United Airlines flight from Chicago have gone viral online, an official from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) reminded passengers to know their rights.
”There’s the Air Passenger Bill of Rights (APBR) and passengers must know this, their entitlements,” said CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla.
Under the APBR, a passenger cannot be denied the right to board an aircraft without his/her consent.
Arcilla said overbooking really happens. However, forcing a passenger to deplane is not the right thing to do, he emphasized.
”Air carriers usually offer compensation, extra round-trip tickets to get volunteers. When no one volunteers, then the compensation being offered gets bigger,” Arcilla said.
That is also what was written in the APBR, and cited that the practice is also known as an “auction system”.
Arcilla also highlighted that there are many things included in the APBR, and these don’t just include instances when passengers are already onboard an aircraft.
Among these rights include the passenger’s right to be processed for check-in, right to sufficient processing time, compensation for damaged/loss baggage, and compensation for cancelled flights as well as for flights that will be delayed for at least three hours.
Meanwhile, the number of passengers accessing the country’s main airport continues to increase this Holy Week.
Data from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) indicated that in April 11 alone, almost 35,000 international flights and almost 32,000 domestic flights were recorded in the departure area of the four terminals.
International arrivals, which reached 26,690 on Tuesday, showed 10.85 percent increase compared to last year, according to MIAA.
There were 29,136 domestic arrivals on Tuesday, and this is 17.92 percent bigger than the domestic arrivals in the same period last year, the data showed. (PNA)/MA. CRISTINA C. ARAYATA