With a first-time flyer from Cebu

WHILE checking on Newsbreak after Manolo's link to a hotel-building boom in Cebu, a story on Cebu Pacific Air's resurgence as a low-cost carrier grabbed my attention. Especially the last part of this paragraph that made me laugh:

(Local airlines) rode the crest of a wave with never-before-seen growth in the local airline industry. For example, in the first 15 days of September alone, some 306,600 passengers flew between local destinations. That’s a remarkable 43.8-percent increase in air traffic from just 213,000 in the same period last year. Airline executives attribute this to passengers flying more frequently and to passengers who have never flown before. (Italics mine)

On my return flight from Cebu, I am 100% sure a first-time flyer was with us. And he is surely one of the barangay officials who attended the 8th National Convention of the Liga ng mga Barangay at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, Cebu City. The ones with me at the predeparture area were a loud bunch, especially when they talked about how the P1,000 allowance given them at the end of the conference appeased the grumbling towards their national leadership.

And why did I laugh? Because that barangay captain, a few rows in front of me, shrieked loudly and very distinctly when our PAL aircraft abruptly began its descent into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.