Deep discount offered to airlines

Determined to woo airlines to fly to the Northern Marianas and fill the gap to be left by Japan Airlines’ looming pullout, the Commonwealth Ports Authority adopted a resolution yesterday offering a 50-percent discount on all passenger fees to any air carrier that will start new direct flights to the CNMI.

CPA charges airlines $8 for every passenger departing the Northern Marianas and $2.20 for every arrival.

Thus, any airline that takes advantage of CPA’s incentive program will have to pay only $4 in passenger departure charge and $1.10 in international arrival fee per passenger.

The discount will be extended to airlines currently serving the CNMI, as well as new carriers that will establish new or additional direct flights to the islands from an international market or airport outside of a U.S. jurisdiction.

“To qualify as a new flight, the air carrier shall not have served that market or airport for a period of six months prior to the inauguration of service to be provided herein,” read a part of the resolution.

A similar incentive program currently offered by CPA is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2005.

CPA had earlier expressed plans to discontinue the program which has been in place for several years now, amid fears that the federal government might start questioning it.

However, the CPA board of directors voted unanimously yesterday to extend the scheme for another year, in view of JAL’s impending suspension of flights to Saipan.

In the resolution, the CPA board noted that the CNMI economy, especially the local tourism industry, was directly dependent on the major international air carriers to bring in visitors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines, and other CNMI tourism markets.

“Japan Airlines, which has been a leading and positive force in the development of the visitor industry in the Northern Mariana Islands, has made a corporate determination to cease serving the Northern Marianas Islands,” CPA noted. “The loss of this major air carrier requires immediate and constructive measures to be taken to reverse or ameliorate the adverse effects of this determination upon the Commonwealth.”

The incentive program will be effective from Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006.

The Marianas Visitors Authority is also planning to provide incentives to airlines seeking to establish new scheduled or charter service to the CNMI.