CPA asks FAA for more technical assistance
The Commonwealth Ports Authority has asked the Federal Aviation Administration officials in Los Angeles to provide more financial and technical assistance to the CNMI for the improvement of its airports in Saipan, Rota and Tinian.
CPA Executive Director Carlos H. Salas and board member Roman Tudela met with FAA officials in L.A. last month where they discussed the need to acquire more equipment for the three airports.
This developed as only three of the nine employees assigned at Saipan International Airport Control Tower will be taken in by SERCO, a private contractor based in California, when it takes control of tower operations.
SERCO, a private firm hired by FAA for the Western Pacific Region, is set assume the responsibility of running the Saipan International Airport Control Tower on October 1, 1999. It is currently running the Control Towers in Hawaii, Guam and some airports in California.
Salas assured the board that CPA management will absorb the six other employees who will not be chosen by SERCO.
Saipan has been chosen by FAA to be covered by the Federal Control Tower Program. In effect, this would save the ports authority some $600,000 in annual expenditures.
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has earlier met with Willie Card, FAA nationwide manager for the Control Tower from Washington D.C., and Steve Bernstein, overall manager of SERCO, to discuss the program.
Local control tower operators were trained and certified in the Western Pacific region in early February 1995 when Saipan tower was commissioned. Since then, FAA has given the local controllers high marks for their performance. (Lindablue F. Romero)
