Local airlines are  likely incurred P22 billion in net losses in the second quarter because of the border closures and community quarantine that affected the industry’s operations,  according to Air Carriers Association of the Philippines. 

ACAP vice president and executive director Robert Lim said the estimated second-quarter net losses of Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Asia Philippines likely reached P22 billion.

ACAP estimated that passenger traffic slumped to 800,000 in the second quarter from 13.5 million passengers in the same period last year. 

Local airlines resumed limited domestic flights on June 3 after the government relaxed quarantine measures in Metro Manila and other provinces. 

Some local government units, however, are not accepting domestic flights over worries of new COVID-19 cases in their cities and provinces.

Lim said a unified and coordinated policy by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and LGUs would be a welcome development in the industry. 

“Different provinces have different assessments of their virus containment situation even if they are already in GCQ [general community quarantine]. So, some variation will remain,” he said.