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House to lobby for resumption of PAL flight
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Posted on Mar 21 2000
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial will lead a three-man delegation to Manila this week to hold talks with the owner of Philippine Airlines for possible resumption of its direct flights to Saipan.
Rep. Rosiky Camacho, chair of the Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee, and Rep. Malua T. Peter will join him in the meeting with business tycoon Lucio Tan scheduled this weekend.
PAL, the Philippines’ flag carrier, used to provide flights between Manila and Saipan, but the service was stopped several years ago due to shrinking passenger haul.
With the reduction of flights by Continental Micronesia, the region’s largest carrier, PAL can fill in the growing demand for direct flights between the two cities, according to Mr. Fitial.
“Now that Continental is not providing direct flight service, it would appear to me that it is profitable for Philippine Airlines to provide the direct flights,” he told in an interview yesterday.
Worried over its impact on the local tourism industry, the CNMI government has been trying to entice other airlines to establish routes between the island and key Asian cities, including Tokyo and Seoul from where most of the tourists originate.
Since the Commonwealth commands a large number of Filipino workers and residents, establishing air service to and from Manila can benefit both the CNMI and Philippine governments.
By bringing in PAL, the local government also hopes to tap tourists from the neighboring country and facilitate increased trade and business ties, said Mr. Fitial.
He added that the CNMI delegation hopes to explore the possibility of attracting PAL back to Saipan during the meeting with Mr. Tan, who owns other big business ventures in the Philippines.
The House leadership has pledged to improve air transportation in the Commonwealth as part of the efforts to boost the local economy which has yet to recover from the two-year currency crisis that dogged most Asian countries.
