Arrival And Transit In Cebu

This is Part 9 of the Sights & Scenes On My Iloilo To Cebu To Tacloban Flights.

Arrival: Cebu
Buses ferried us to the terminal (as usual), where we saw this Manang!

It looked like she was putting those sheets into the clear plastic trash bag. Some of those sheets were flying off, and she was having difficulty catching-securing those.

Fellow passengers helped her pick some sheets blown towards our path, and that's what caught my attention. Hmn, old memoranda and tables/statistics of/from PAL.

Aw yes, since that's a PAL office inside that door. I wanted to go hop by and remind them that rubbish should be secured in the trash bag 'while still inside their offices'.

Paano naman kasi, ang sikip-sikip na ng office na yan for an entire Station Control. I think its width is only 4 meters. They should relocate to some wider area at say, T2.

No, I did not peep in. I had to rush. I remembered I was still going home.

Mind Your Trash
But I know something about FOD, that you my fellow travelers would like to know. It is at times written as F.O.D. but similarly, the letters stand for Foreign Object Debris.

It means anything on the tarmac, that's not supposed to be where they are, and has the potential to cause damage to airplanes, equipment, personnel or us passengers.

Consequent or subsequent to that meaning above, there is another meaning of FOD and that is Foreign Object Damage - meaning nangyari na ang mga pinaka-iiwasan!

Airports have very strict rules on FOD - both for staff and passengers. You could be fined heftily for violating those rules. Paper blowing in the wind are considered FOD.

A candy wrapper or anything from you, dropped accidentally or thrown purposely on the tarmac is an FOD violation that may delay a flight, and you reprimanded, at least.

You can be offloaded, fined, sent to jail, or all of the above, if the FOD disrupts flight operations significantly, especially if there's proof (i.e., CCTV) that you did it willfully.

Eh kung ako, bago ka patawan ng anything, ipapahabol ko sayo ang candy wrapper!

Seriously, the catch these days is: there is no warning about FOD, on any document that passengers receive. Most are just reminders to "dispose of your trash properly".

That could change soon - especially for airports where passengers have to walk on the tarmac (usually to/from small planes). Airline and airport organizations are now looking at intensifying FOD awareness - not just for employees but passengers too.

How did I know? Tinanong nila ako ng kung anu-ano about that! Oh eh, di sinagot ko isa-isa. Baka makatulong kahit papaano, di ba? Ang isang hamak na blogger... o ha!

And I rushed out of the airport.

Though I still caught a glimpse of passengers appreciating the destination ads.

I smiled seeing them look at pagkaon pictures. Either mga foodie or gutom na sila!

Transit in Cebu
Teka..,
Why did I say "I rushed out of the airport" eh I was just transitting to Tacloban, di ba? Oh yes I was, but I had about 4+ hours of transit time. Uli sa ta kadiyot oi! Manilhig!

This was planned. I didn't even bother about my bags. They were tagged all the way from Iloilo to Tacloban. Bahala na si PAL dyan. That picture above was at 12:08PM. But at an hour before departure, I was already at the PAL Mabuhay Lounge Mactan!

And who are those? Ma, as in malay ko! I just found it cute that those 3 people in the front table were pilots of I did not know which flight. They were having their briefing!

Is that how they do it now? No, not really. They have their own dispatch office, that's where they report-to, meet, and conduct their pre-flight briefings. They only show up at a Mabuhay Lounge (I think) when their flight is delayed (e.g., wala pa ang plane).

Anyway, not long after watching them, boarding for my flight was called.

Let's go on this final leg. Gabi na!

Previous

Next