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Travel association pushes for regional airline
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Posted on Jul 06 1999
Members of the Asia Pacific Travel Association (PATA) in Micronesia have expressed concern over the inadequate airline seat capacity which has contributed to the decline in visitor arrivals in their respective islands.
In a recent meeting held in Guam, the PATA Micronesia Chapter noted the need to establish a regional airline since Continental Micronesia has no immediate plans of increasing its current number of flights.
“We shared the same problem of low visitor arrivals which is made more difficult by the inadequate seat capacity,” said Vicky Benavente, deputy managing director of MVA.
According to Benavente, the members discussed the possibility of a regional travel mart for travel agents from the United States.
Travel agents from the East Coast will be invited to the planned regional travel show, which has been temporarily scheduled for April 2000.
Benavente presented the MVA visitor arrivals for the month of May and provided information on the events and activities in the CNMI for the next three months.
Visitor arrivals during the month of May declined 4 percent to 39,558 compared to the same period last year primarily due to the reduction in airline seat capacity.
Airline seats from Guam alone where many tourists take their connecting flights to the Northern Marianas, plunged 38 percent. Currently, there are 4,0509 airline seats from Guam on a weekly basis against 6,486 logged last year.
Although Continental Micronesia insists that connecting flights do not have any effect on the number of visitors coming to Guam, tour operators explain tourists frown on the 30 minutes wait they had to endure in Hagatna airport before reaching Saipan.
Wally Dias, staff of the vice president for Sales and Marketing of Continental Airlines, said there would be additional flights from Nagoya and Manila to Guam beginning October 1999. Due to low market demand, it is very unlikely that the airline will provide additional seats, he said.
Continental Micronesia is expected to retire all of its B727s and replace them with B737-800 to provide a more efficient service in the region. It’s current DC10 fleet will be used until the year 2005 which may be changed to either a B777 or B767.
