PIA-Northwest resumes Tinian- Guam flights
Pacific Island Aviation’s Northwest Airlink will resume its Tinian-Guam direct service today to accommodate the growing interest of visitors on the island-municipality of Tinian.
Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino has been receiving a lot of inquiries from overseas guests who would like to go to Tinian for a day trip or an overnight stay, according to Tom Liu, general manager of Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino.
Northwest Airlink’s Saipan-Tinian-Guam direct service stopped in early 1999 after visitor arrivals to the island-municipality did not pick up. At the same time, Northwest Airlink was also having difficulty competing with the Saipan-Tinian ferry service.
“It was a bit premature then to operate those flights and now we believe that it is the right time to resume the direct service between Tinian and Guam because the casino is slowly gaining ground,” said Mr. Liu.
Northwest Airlink will depart daily from Guam at 9:30 a.m. and 6:45 p.m. and from Tinian at 6:15 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Travel time is only 45 minutes between the islands. Connection between Tinian and Saipan is also available, including the ferry service by Tinian Shipping.
Management of Tinian Dynasty has been targeting the 125,000 population of Guam and its one million tourists to visit the hotel casino complex and enjoy the island’s unspoiled beauty.
Mr. Liu said he is optimistic that the hotel-casino complex will be able to attract a lot of tourists from Guam as visitor arrivals to the CNMI has shown a lot of improvement.
Tinian Dynasty has been having an average of 50 percent hotel occupancy, a far cry from the 15 percent occupancy two years ago. Mr. Liu said tourists will be able to do various water sports activities in Tachonga Beach, fronting the hotel which include parasailing, snorkeling, scuba diving or a jet ski ride.
Northwest Airlink is also studying the possibility of flying Saipan-Tinian-Guam to accommodate Saipan residents for a $100 airfare. “If everything goes well, this will be available by mid-August,” said Mr. Liu.
Tinian Dynasty has signed an agreement with Mandarin Air to extend its Taipei-Tinian charter service to three more months due to the increasing popularity of the package tour in Taiwan.
With Mandarin Air’s twice a week service operating in near capacity, Tinian Dynasty management believes that the Taiwanese market, if it is given the right promotion, will give a boost to the ailing tourism economy.
“We still have a long way to go to fully recover from our losses as a result of the recession but we are on the right track. We have survived the last two years because of the help from a lot of people and hopefully, we can get by the surviving stage until we can stand on our own feet,” said Mr. Liu.
