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Asian puts off increasing number of flights to NMI
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Posted on Jul 11 2005
Plans to increase flights between Seoul and Saipan were held off due to lack of available aircraft.
Asiana Airlines had planned to add three flights per week to its current daily flights between Saipan and South Korea from July 14 to Sept. 21.
The airline had also been scheduled to provide two extra flights between the Saipan and Inchon international airports on a regular basis starting the last week of September.
However, Asiana-Saipan general manager Kim Kwang Joong said yesterday that the plan would not materialize because there are currently no available aircraft to service the route.
Kim said the situation is unfortunate, noting that the demand from the Korea market was currently very high.
“Everyday, our flight is fully booked right now. Repeat travelers from Korea are increasing. I think that’s a very good sign that the Korean market is recovering and that Korean tourists like the CNMI,” he said. “But because of the aircraft problem, we didn’t gather the approval of our head office [in Seoul] to proceed with the extra flights.”
Nevertheless, Asiana will operate flights from Korea to Saipan whenever possible, Kim said. Such is the case on July 17 and July 21, when Asiana will offer an additional flight each.
Kim added that the flights would be serviced by either an Airbus 321 or Boeing 767 aircraft, whichever is available.
Airbus 321 aircraft has a seat capacity of 177 passengers and is smaller than the 260-seater Boeing 767 aircraft, which Asiana uses for its regularly scheduled flights to Saipan.
Korea is one of the Northern Marianas’ largest tourism markets, second only to Japan. Over 10 percent of tourist arrivals to the CNMI come from Korea.
