NMI leaders welcome Northwest’s new flights

Government and business officials welcomed yesterday the decision by Northwest Airlines to increase frequency of the carrier’s nonstop service between Tokyo and Saipan.

Northwest, which currently offers daily Tokyo-Saipan service, will fly the route 10 times weekly beginning April 24, 2006. The additional flights will utilize 430-seat Boeing 747 jumbo jet and will generate 5,160 additional seats from Japan per month.

“I am pleased to learn about this good news. The new service will cover some of the seats that we lost when Japan Airlines pulled out. It will allow more tourists to visit the CNMI,” said Sen. Maria Frica Pangelinan, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development, and Programs.

“It’s a good sign that Northwest recognized the demand. I hope the new flights will be profitable. This is a first step [toward improving the state of our tourism industry],” Pangelinan added.

Business leaders also expressed their appreciation of Northwest’s announcement.

“We are extremely grateful to Northwest for their confidence and support. We believe there is demand for more flights from Japan, and I’m sure I speak for all our Hotel Association members in saying that we’ll do all we can to help make sure this new service is successful,” said Lynn Knight, chairwoman of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“We’d like to thank Governor Fitial and [Marianas Visitors Authority] for working swiftly with Northwest to make this possible,” she added.

Hyatt Regency Saipan general manager Michael von Siebenthal echoed Knight’s comments, saying: “This is really great news. It is wonderful that the Governor was able to work with Northwest on the details and help put this together so quickly.”

For his part, Japan Saipan Travel Association president Hideki Sakai said, “It’s so important for us to get these additional seats from Japan and would like to thank Northwest. We look forward to this increase in seats. It’s important that we all work together to increase Marianas tourism.”

The new Tokyo service will depart the Narita International Airport every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. This will bring the number of Northwest’s Tokyo-Saipan flights to a total of 10 per week.

The nighttime flights will complement Northwest’s current service to Saipan from Narita, Osaka and Nagoya. The service, which will depart Narita at 10:55pm, will also offer Japanese travelers more opportunity and additional flexibility when visiting the Mariana Islands. These flights will also provide one-stop connect service to residents of the CNMI via Narita to Northwest’s gateways in the United States.

The decision by Northwest comes after Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s trip to Japan last week. During his visit, Fitial met with Northwest officials to push for additional flights and to reassure the airline company of his administration’s support.

According to the Governor’s Office, Fitial entered into a memorandum of agreement with Northwest granting the airline company a marketing package as an incentive for the new flights.

In line with the MOU, Fitial instructed the Marianas Visitors Authority to aggressively market the new flight and urged the Commonwealth Ports Authority to provide Northwest discounts on passenger service fees.