ANA 787

Parked outside the terminal in Manila is the first 787 that I have seen.

I was assuming it’s flying to Japan, but it seems like a rather short hop for such a big plane.
I am flying Cebu Pacific on a somewhat smaller Airbus A380, but I will fly on the 787 with LOT from Warsaw to Toronto in July.

Manila International Terminal Fee

I’ve been trying to find out what the terminal fee (read, departure tax) for NAIA international flights was. The published information is outdated.  So, for the benefit of others.

If you depart Manila on an international flight, you will have to pay 550 pesos in cash before you can leave.  I call this a cash grab, but hey, who am I to argue with the airport authority!
Domestic flights officially pay 200 pesos, but it’s included in your ticket price.

Cebu pacific

This morning I flew from Camiguin to Cebu.  They have a single flight each day that departs at 7:30am.  Since there is only one flight, I do wonder why they could not of made it at a more reasonable time but I guess it’s a scheduling issue with the airline.

It was a small ATR turboprop.  As usual in the Philippines, we walked across the runway to the aircraft.
There was no cargo hold, the luggage went in at the front of the plane. They also weighed the passengers so they could balance the weight on the plane.
What made me laugh though were the safety announcements!  They announced that in the event of a decompression there were oxygen masks above some of the seats!  While I looked up to see if I was one of the lucky ones (unfortunately not) they announced that a tool was required to open the panel and a flight attendent would assist if necessary.
This seems to be a good example of how Cebu pacific follows most of IATA safety regulations, but not all.  This aircraft never exceeded 15,000ft anyway so it didn’t seem to be a major concern, but it still made me laugh.
The schedule was interesting.  Once the aircraft was full we left.  The actually landed in Cebu just after we were supposed to leave Camiguin! It was just a 40 minute hop with great views of the islands.
Yesterday I took a small boat across to another island with a marine sanctuary with some pretty good snorkeling.
Now these boats are interesting.  They are balanced by bamboo on each side so they don’t topple over.  There is not much to protect you from the ocean though, so you usually get soaked!