Incensed at Cebu Pacific’s alleged ill treatment of passengers after one of its planes overshot the runway at the Davao airport Sunday night, Ateneo de Davao University has announced it will no longer be doing business with the airline.
In a letter that was posted through the university’s Twitter account, ADDU president Joel Tabora, S.J. said the decision is in protest of the “insensitivity and ineptness of the maner in which the Cebu Pacific passengers were ignored and neglected in a n hour of emergency.”
Tabora said passengers had to wait 27 minutes “in a smoked cabin” before the crew deployed emergency slides to let them off the plane. “What if the engine had exploded? What if someone had choked due to the smoke?,” Tabora said. He added passengers had to wait an hour and a half after they got off the plane before anyone from Cebu Pacific talked to them.
Tabora said the airline put people’s lives in the hands of crew who had not been trained to respond to emergency situations. He added the university will generally reccomend a boycott. “You do not deserve customers,” he said.
On his own Twitter account, Tabora also said “distraught passengers calld Davao’s 911. But 911 denied access! Dont fly CebPacific!”
The incident forced airlines to cancel at least 20 flights to and from Davao. The airport is expected to resume operations by Monday evening.
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Photo: Ateneo de Davao University
