Meeting with Korean Air, Asiana eyed
The Commonwealth Ports Authority has requested anew a meeting with Korean Air board chairman Yang Ho Cho and Asiana Airlines vice president for passenger marketing Young Keun Kim, in a move to boost traffic and increase visitor arrivals in the CNMI.
In a letter to the airline officials, CPA executive director Carlos H. Salas said he would like to discuss further the potential additional flights of Asiana and Korean Air’s return to Saipan.
Salas earlier met with Korean Air executives led by Cho, who arrived here for a short visit and meeting with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio.
“We remain very interested in having your airline re-enter the market and would very much like to assist you in any way possible,” said Salas in a letter to Cho.
Tenorio has sent a letter to Korea’s Ministry of Construction and Transportation giving his support to the application of Korean Air for the resumption of its Seoul-Saipan direct service. Korean Air may begin providing flights to Saipan before the end of the year.
Despite the downturn in the local tourism industry and the plunge in Korean economy brought about by the region’s financial crisis, Asiana Airlines continued providing air service to the CNMI.
Since late last year, visitor arrivals from Korea have shown significant improvement which encouraged Asiana Airlines to increase seat capacity. In its meeting with CPA officials, Asiana executives raised the possibility of providing charter flights from Pusan to Saipan because of the growing honeymoon market there.
“We remain very interested in offering Asiana Airlines the opportunity to play an expanded role at the Saipan International Airport and would very much like to assist you in any way possible,” Salas wrote to Kim.
Korea projects the honeymoon market to increase continuously as some 400,000 couples are expected to get married this year, a good reason for airlines and tour operators in the CNMI to prepare for the competition with Guam in getting a bigger share of the Korean market.
Based on the visitor arrivals record of MVA, the Korean market started showing some signs of recovery in December 1998. But passenger demand jumped by more than 50 percent since the beginning of the 1999.
MVA officials have traveled to Korea to convince the biggest tour operators early this year to assist the CNMI in marketing the island as an ideal destination for Koreans.
