3 charter flights from Beijing will fly in for Lunar New Year

China Southern Airlines will have three charter flights from Beijing in time for the Lunar New Year celebrations at the end of this month.

POI Aviation general manager Frank Camacho said the flights would arrive on Saipan on Jan. 29 and 30 and Feb. 1. POI Aviation will provide ground-handling service for the charter flights.

China Southern Airlines also regularly provides two charter services weekly from Guangzhou.

Camacho said that China Eastern Airlines, which provides two flights weekly from Shanghai, has slated no extra flights yet for the Lunar New Year.

Chinese tourists totaled 32,920 in 2005. The year’s last quarter showed a 5-percent improvement in Chinese arrivals—from 9,031 in 2004 to 9,510 in 2005— which slightly mitigated the impact of dwindling visitor arrivals from Japan following the pullout of Japan Airlines’ regular flights to Saipan beginning October 2005.

Last month, 2,916 from Chinese visitors came to the islands, increasing by 4 percent from December 2004’s 2,803 Chinese tourists.