Palacios encourages CPA to entice airlines to come to Saipan

The Commonwealth Ports Authority was joined by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios for a regular board meeting yesterday who encouraged them to step up to the plate and find ways to entice new and even old airlines to return to Saipan.

As the CNMI’s sole money-making industry is tourism, it’s no secret that the CNMI administration, headed by Palacios, has been working on getting new markets to travel to Saipan to help boost the economy absent the China market.

Because of this, Palacios, speaking in yesterday’s CPA regular board meeting, encouraged board members to step up and find ways to entice new airlines and possibly even old ones to come visit Saipan.

“Are there really no other markets out there? What will it take for us to talk to an airline in Japan? I’ve had those conversations but I’m not sure if CPA has had any conversation with any airlines from Japan or Korea. We do have airlines from Korea coming in, but these are small jets, is there an opportunity to bring in bigger assets? That’s probably something CPA might want to look at,” he said.

In an interview with Palacios after the meeting, he said we all need to work together to bring in new markets and new airlines.

“I’m not sure why CPA, in the past, had this sense that it is not their job to go out and look for airlines although the airlines are the ones that generate their revenue. I had the opportunity to go to several Asian countries which were our markets to try to reinvigorate and entice them to come. We need to reconfigure ourselves to bring in more Japanese tourists and even bring in Taiwan and see what we can do about other markets,” he said.

Touching on the fact that current landing fees in the CNMI are at an all-time high and are deterring markets from coming, Palacios said more effort has to be put into getting more airlines to come to Saipan in order for these fees to drop.

“The cost of flying into Saipan is very high. The fees are not as attractive as other destinations. I’m just glad that we still have three airlines from Korea flying in. Taiwan, we’re still exploring incentivizing them to consider coming to Saipan. We just can’t lay around and hope that things will fall in place for us, we have to make sure that we also put in the effort to get these things done,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palacios also touched on the absence of the China market and previous private sector efforts to have the administration lobby the cause with the federal government.

He said the reality is that geopolitics exist and supporting current efforts for an exemption on China Part Order 213 remains uncertain.

1. “The reality [is] geopolitics [exists] in this area, we can’t ignore it. If we were part of a different country, we probably could, but we’re not. I’ve been requested by several bodies, including CPA, to write a letter to the federal government about supporting something that may be very tenuous. Even with our Visa waiver program… it’s discretionary. It’s based on the discretion of U.S. [Department of] Homeland Security,” he said.