Previous Story
Airline industry’s a business
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Posted on Sep 07 2000
The Issue: NMI must justify profitability before it could entice more airline carriers to the islands.
Our View: The airline industry is a business, each of whom must answer to stockholders, not politicians.
The CNMI needs to get off its political horse so it could afford itself a realistic glimpse of vital factors involved in running an airline company. The usual political solutions to economic problems isn’t going to entice more airlines to provide direct service to these isles.
We must buckle down and take heed of the suggestions made by Airports Council and Senior Vice President for International Affairs, Diane I. Peterson. She said that the CNMI should show a significant number of passengers are higher yields as those are the ones most attractive to carriers.
Ms. Peterson reiterated that carriers decide on what routes to serve based on the number and kind of passengers, cargo, how well a route fits into an airline company’s slots and how a route stacks up against others in terms of profitability.
Indeed, the Asian Crisis took its toll on the tourism industry of these isles such that more than 2000 tourist-related businesses have since closed shop. We’re not sure if this phenomenon has reached rock bottom or is it continuing. If anything, this experience tells us never to leave all our eggs in one basket.
The next realistic step is to look elsewhere for a new market, i.e., mainland China where some 100 million tourists are ready to explore the global village, annually. We’re not sure what seems to be the hold up, but it’s a good market as the new up and coming young Chinese with money to spend head out to jetways. It’s really all up to the CNMI to secure its share of this very lucrative market. Si Yuus Maase`!
