Asiana upbeat about Osaka-Saipan flight

Asiana Airlines’ thrice-weekly Osaka-Saipan service got off to a fine start over the weekend with the inaugural flight nearly full.

Kwang Joong Kim, regional sales general manager of Asiana Airlines, said a total of 170 passengers disembarked from the 177-seat Airbus plane that touched down on time at 2:20am early Saturday morning at the Francisco M. Palacios-Saipan International Airport.

Kim and other Asiana officials joined Gov. Benigno R. Fitial in welcoming the tourists from Japan.

Fitial said the more than 95 percent load factor is a good sign for the service, which brings the number of Asiana weekly flights to the Commonwealth to 21.

“This means Saipan is getting very busy because of the season. A lot of Asian visitors are coming to Saipan because of the weather. I woke up at 1am to welcome passengers of the inaugural flight. I’m very much committed not only to Asiana but to our visitor industry in general. I really want to see more people come here because this would really help the CNMI tourism industry.

The CNMI chief executive personally handed a bouquet of flowers to the chief pilot and the head stewardess of the inaugural flight during a short welcome ceremony prepared by the Marianas Visitors Authority.

Kim, for his part, said the Osaka-Saipan flights—as well as the other 18 weekly flights Asiana is already servicing the CNMI, plus its Laolao Bay Golf Resort investment—only reaffirms his company’s commitment to the islands.

“This is another Asiana service coming to the CNMI. Because of our Laolao Bay investment we inaugurated this flight. We hope we will bring a lot more Japanese tourists from Osaka. I’m very happy to have almost 95 percent load factor in the inaugural flight. We hope we do good,” he said.

Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Perry Tenorio was one of the passengers of the inaugural flight and seconded the governor’s observation that winter in East Asia indeed has resulted in an influx of tourists to warmer destinations like Saipan.

“Weather was nice and cold in Osaka so I’m sure our guests will be pleasantly surprised about the warmness of our island, considering its very cold in their country and that’s part of attraction, that we are summer year round,” he said.

Tenorio was also pleased with the success of the inaugural flight and is crossing his fingers that more good things will come from the service.

“Given the current economic situation I’m happy that the Osaka-Saipan inaugural flight had 170 passengers out of the 177 seats. Given for a lot of things, we’re very grateful that this inaugural flight was well attended. We look forward to working together with Asiana to make sure this will be a successful route for them,” he said.

MVA anticipates the service will bring more than 20,000 travelers—based on 531 seats per week—to the CNMI during its first year of operation.

Kumho Resort president Boong Koo Kim, meanwhile, said the onus is on them and the CNMI to continue to promote the service as well as the rest of the 18 Asiana flights to Saipan.

“We are happy about the inaugural flight and we need to continue to promote this service. We hope to get 70 percent seat occupancy in the service. The Laolao Development project is connected with our Asiana flights. Without the project we will not have that much services,” he said.

The welcome ceremony also saw local girls garbed in traditional dress hand out leis to the flight’s VIPs and shell necklaces to its passengers.