Borongan pushes tourism; offers airfare discount

CEBU CITY – To encourage people to visit Borongan City and other areas in Eastern Samar province, Borongan will provide air fare discounts to take the air route connecting the city to Cebu and Manila.

Borongan City Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda said the discount could only be availed if the ticket is booked or bought from the ticketing office operated by the city government located at the FUN Borongan building at the city’s Baybay Boulevard.

“We are trying very hard to promote the new air route. We are hoping this will boost the local economy and help us recover from the ill effects of Covid-19,” Agda said, adding, the city government will give a P1,500 discount per flight booked through the local government-operated ticketing office.

With this discount, the P5,844 Borongan-Cebu-Manila fair will be reduced to P4,344, while the P5,979 fare for the Manila-Cebu-Borongan flight will be down to P4,479. The Borongan-Cebu flight with P4,935 fare will be lowered to P3,435 while the Cebu-Borongan flight will only cost P3,715 from P5,215.

“We are still waiting for advice from our finance officer before the launch. This is encompassing to all would-be passengers, not only from Borongan and Eastern Samar, but even from other parts of the country who wanted to visit the province,” Agda said.

Aside from offering discounts, the city government will also give free shuttle to all passengers of the province using the Borongan City Airport. The bus picks up air passengers in Oras town for those residing in the northern part of the province and Quinapondan for those coming from the southern part of Eastern Samar.

Last December, Philippine Airlines launched a twice-weekly Cebu-Borongan-Cebu flight every Monday and Friday. The flight connects travelers from Metro Manila to the city via Cebu. Borongan-bound passengers from Metro Manila can take the 8:55 a.m. flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport that arrives at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport at around 10:20 a.m.

From Cebu, passengers will then transfer to a turboprop plane that will leave for Borongan at 11 a.m. and arrive at about noon time. The plane will fly to Cebu at 12:30 p.m. and arrive after an hour, passengers will then transfer to an airbus plane that will leave at 3:10 p.m. in Cebu and land in Manila at 4:50 p.m. (Roel Amazona)