NMI finalizing its open sky petition

The Commonwealth Ports Authority is moving closer to submitting a formal petition with the U.S. Department of Transportation for air service expansion in the CNMI.

CPA consultant Carlos H. Salas said the agency, through a consulting firm in Washington D.C., is now on a second draft of the petition.

“We’ll finish it this week or early next week. It’s a lot of fine tuning, gathering of data to make sure it’s complete, with relevant statistics, relevant justification,” said Salas.

He said CPA would distribute a copy of the second draft to stakeholders, including the Governor’s Office and the Marianas Visitors Authority, for more input.

It will take another round of review and fine-tuning before a final petition is submitted to the federal department.

“We want to make sure that our petition is well-thought of, well supported so we can have a favorable consideration from DoT,” said Salas.

He said CPA also aims to get the support of U.S. airlines, particularly Continental Airlines and Northwest.

“We want to make it palatable to air carriers,” he said.

Both airlines have reportedly opposed a similar petition filed by the Guam government with the Transportation Department.

“We have no guarantee they [airlines] will support it [CNMI’s petition], but we are working hard. We are hoping they will support us,” said Salas.

The CNMI’s open-sky request, if granted, will result in the entry of foreign airlines to service the Commonwealth.

The proposed waiver would allow foreign carriers to have the flexibility to fly to the CNMI and an additional U.S. destination.

Right now, foreign carriers such as Asiana are restricted from flying to Saipan and another U.S. destination like Guam at the same time.

Salas said the CNMI is a unique U.S. jurisdiction whose main economic engine—tourism—depends largely on air travel.

The CNMI’s tourism industry, still reeling from the effects of a series of international events—the Asian economic crisis in the late ’90s, 2001 terrorist attacks, and SARS scare—was further hit recently with the pullout of Japan Airlines.

Japan Airlines used to provide daily flights from Japan, the CNMI’s number one tourism market.

CPA currently retains the services of Washington D.C.-based aviation law firm, Hogan & Hartson, to finalize the open-sky petition with the federal department.