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Asian carrier eyes Saipan operations
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Posted on Nov 27 2005
Following the pullout of Japan Airlines, another Asian air carrier may introduce flight services to Saipan.
Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Carlos Salas expressed optimism that the airline company would make its final decision by December.
Salas, however, refused to disclose the air carrier pending its final decision. But he said in an interview last Friday that the airline’s representatives were “very interested and positive” about servicing Saipan as a destination.
Salas said the CNMI government has offered the airline company some incentives should it finally decide to service Saipan. As part of those incentives, the CPA offered the Asian carrier a 50-percent discount on all airport fees.
The Marianas Visitors Authority has vowed to collaborate with the airline company in promoting the CNMI as a tourist destination to enhance the company’s passenger traffic, according to Salas.
This developed as the CNMI continues to promote the Northern Marianas in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.
Following the pullout of JAL’s regular flights to Saipan from Tokyo and Osaka, Japanese arrivals to the CNMI dropped by 21 percent last October compared to October 2004’s figures.
MVA statistics showed there were 22,491 Japanese tourists who came to the CNMI in October, several thousands less than October 2004’s 28,586 Japanese visitors.
With Japan remaining as the CNMI’s premier tourist market, the decline in Japanese arrivals translated to an overall decline by 11.55 percent in October’s visitor arrivals.
MVA recorded a total of 35,418 tourists who came to the CNMI last October, nearly 5,000 visitors less than the October 2004 total of 40,042.
This is despite the strong performance by the Korean market, which posted a 70-percent increase in arrivals compared to those of October 2004. Korea generated 5,369 visitors to the CNMI last October, 2,213 more visitors than in October 2004.
