Over 40K travelers hit by flight cancellations due to 'Paeng'

Over 40,000 air travelers passing through Manila were affected by canceled flights due to Tropical Storm Paeng (international name: Naegi), the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) reported Sunday.

In an advisory, MIAA said a total of 295 flights out of the 618 scheduled flights for Saturday, October 29, were canceled, affecting 43,151 passengers.

This comes as the MIAA closed its runway facilities starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday, citing gustiness of the wind. It was opened at 10 p.m., with the Oman Air flight from Muscat.

The operator said carriers offered rebooking and hotel accommodations to those who arrived at the airport early, but a few passengers chose to stay inside the terminals.

“As of this writing, passengers of disrupted flights have started to proceed to the airport. The MIAA operations teams are working closely with airline agents to expedite processing of passengers,” the MIAA said.

Tropical Storm Paeng continues to move west northwestward over the West Philippine Sea with over four areas in Luzon under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2, according to the advisory released by PAGASA late Sunday morning.

At least 48 fatalities have been reported while almost a million were affected by Tropical Storm Paeng. —LBG, GMA News