Previous Story
CPA could raise fees due to lack of funding
Kimberlyn King-Hinds
Because federal funds previously allocated to the agency is running thin, there is a likelihood that the Commonwealth Ports Authority will have to raise its fees for all those doing business with CNMI airports.
In an interview with CPA chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds, she said that CPA is looing at exhausting all its American Rescue Plan Act funding by the end of this fiscal year and, if not remedied, the CNMI will suffer one way or another.
“No one is talking about the fact that the CPA has been in austerity even before the pandemic. That’s a reflection of the state of the economy. That is an issue that people need to start talking about. At the end of this fiscal year, we would have exhausted federal funds. This year’s budget is being mostly supported by ARPA funds and we have stretched it out as much as we can. The worst-case scenario is we lay off people and we operate at a very limited level. If we don’t find a remedy for our current situation, its either that or we pass on the charges. The alternative is it’s going to be very expensive to land here and it’s not going to be enticing to airlines,” she said.
King-Hinds explained that if CPA does not find another funding source after ARPA has been completed exhausted, airline partners and the traveling public will be impacted. This, in turn, will ultimately affect the CNMI’s tourism recovery.
“What does this mean for CPA in the next year? We are going to have to pass off whatever charges to our airline partners and the traveling public, which is going to make it very expensive to travel to the CNMI. That’s going to be a challenge for the tourism industry and we’re try to avoid that,” she said.
“How we’re going about it is we’re reaching out to our federal partners, much like at the beginning of the pandemic, saying that we are not similarly situated as places like Hawaii and Guam who have alternative source markets. We only have three; China which remains offline and makes up 41% of our market; we have Japan, which is still recovering; and we have Korea,” King-Hinds added.
