Airline passengers who have been left stressed and stranded due to the eruption of Taal volcano in the Philippines can now breathe sighs of relief as air travel has started to return to normal at the Guam International Airport.
Travelers remain stranded on Guam as the second day of suspended and complete groundings of flights in and out of the Philippines’ capital posed a safety hazard for air travel.
A flight initially leaving Hawaii and bound for Manila was also diverted to Guam. However, United Airlines made sure to accommodate their stranded passengers.
John Quinata, the deputy Guam airport manager, said United Airlines was able to accommodate the majority of passengers by getting them hotel rooms and giving them vouchers for food and transportation to and from the airport.
A show of hospitality that most of the stranded are very appreciative of.
“The hospitality was good. They provided us with lunch and a snack yesterday and then we went to stay at the hotel last night. We appreciate what the airport employees did for us. They fed us food like chicken, noodles and rice and fruits. Because we can not buy food here, there’s no vending machines, or anything,” one stranded passenger said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, passengers were still waiting for an announcement from the airlines about their flights out of Guam.
A representative from United stated to PNC that they were waiting on confirmation that the incoming flights from Guam were cleared to land in Manila.
Meanwhile, official reports from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport said that partial resumption of operations started yesterday and is subject to the terminal capacity of the four NAIA terminals and airline consent.
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