Senate chief hopes Asiana will stay in NMI

Senate President Pete Reyes said he is reasonably optimistic Asiana Airlines will not pull out of the CNMI, despite the company losing millions of dollars annually in the Commonwealth.

Reyes, along with Gov. Benigno Fitial, recently traveled to South Korea to meet with Kumho Asiana chairman and chief executive officer Sam-Koo Park to seek additional flights to the CNMI, in order to fill the gap left by Northwest Airlines canceling some of their flights.

“They are willing to look at the flights, the schedule, and to see what they can do to increase their flights, if they can increase the slots,” Reyes said.

The airline has contemplated pulling out of the CNMI completely, the Senate president said.

Last week it was reported that Asiana Airlines posted a loss of $10 million on its Saipan-Korea flights in Fiscal Year 2008—a 100-percent jump over the carrier’s previous loss of some $5 million.

But Reyes quoted Park as saying he remains committed to staying in the CNMI, and Park sounded optimistic they could increase the number of flights.

“The chairman himself, on several occasions, made the statement that he didn’t realize that he was committing themselves to a greater level to the CNMI than he wished to. But he is willing to live up to that commitment. So in that sense it’s very positive,” the Senate president said.

Kumho made a significant investment in the CNMI through the purchase of Laolao Bay Golf Resort in February 2007 and has since made substantial improvements to include a new club house and other facilities, completing the first phase of its $68.8 million luxury golf resort community project on Saipan. As part of Kumho Asiana’s investment in the CNMI, the company substantially increased flights to and from Korea. But beginning March 29, Asiana will suspend its four daytime flights between Seoul and Saipan until June 30. At present, the company has 16 regular daily flights to the CNMI—11 from Incheon, two from Busan, and three from Osaka. Asiana is the only international airline serving the Saipan-Korea route.

Reyes noted that the Legislature has passed a resolution offering any support possible to help Kumho. The resolution applauded the company for its commitment to the CNMI.

“The resolution is an expression from the CNMI Legislature for the Kumho organization to support the CNMI, for their commitment to continue to invest in the CNMI, even though there are indications of economic downturn,” Reyes said. “They are not leaving us, definitely not leaving us. That’s a good sign. That alone is a very positive outlook. We offered what we can do to encourage them to increase the number of flights they have.”

Saipan general manager Kwang Joong Kim has also said that although Asiana is “bleeding deeply” in the CNMI, the company is committed to staying.

“We’re not making a profit here [in the CNMI]. We already lost millions of dollars. We sacrificed a lot. However, we have the commitment to fulfill and we’re intending to continue it,” Kim said earlier.

Reyes conceded that there have been many airlines that have promised their commitment and good relationship with the CNMI, but ultimately pulled out. He hopes that will not be the case with Asiana.

“We hope this relationship is not going to result in any decision to pull out and they seem very committed to helping out the CNM,” he said.

He admitted, though, these decisions are based on profit.

“They can pull out totally depending on their business and they’re profit driven, so it’s up to us to ensure the relationship is good enough, that they have the capital necessary to hang on and hope things get better,” he said. “They are hopeful things will get better. I am also very hopeful things will get better. I don’t know if it can get any worse than it is right now.”