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Asiana to start Osaka-Saipan flights in Dec.
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Posted on Aug 04 2008
Asiana Airlines is soon to launch new direct flights from Osaka, Japan, to Saipan, a move that comes as the CNMI is seeing early signs of a revival in the local tourism market due to an influx of visitors from key Asian markets.
In a statement Monday, the Marianas Visitors Authority disclosed that Asiana, which already operates daily flights between the CNMI and Korea, will begin flights along the new route Dec. 19.
Flights from Osaka will depart for Saipan Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while return flights will depart Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The airline plans to use 177-seat Airbus planes for the route, which MVA projects will bring more than 20,000 travelers to the CNMI within its first year of operation.
“We are thrilled to further invest in the tourism industry in the CNMI,” said Asiana Airlines General Manager K.J. Kim. “With our flights from Korea and our upcoming flights from Japan we will bring in visitors from the number one and two source markets.”
Word of the new Asiana flights comes after MVA officials last month reported slight gains in tourism from Asian markets like Korea, Japan and Russia. The CNMI saw 30,936 tourists in June, a 3-percent bump over the 29,989 seen in the same month last year, according to MVA statistics.
Some local business leaders have reported a small boost related to added Japanese tourists recently after the arrival of added flights from Tokyo. Japanese visitors in June totaled 15,904, while in June 2008 that number stood at 15,446.
Meanwhile, 9,616 visitors Korean visitors arrived in June, compared to 9,139 in June 2007-a 5 percent increase. Korean tourism to date is up 31 percent over last year.
MVA has said previously that Korean arrivals are expected to stabilize, as it has been more than one year since the launch of daytime flights from Seoul on May 27, 2007.
In addition, Russian tourism saw a 158-percent increase in June over last year, making it the top market performer, yet the total number of Russian visitors remains low at 834 for the month.
