The first of three trial charter flights of Vladivostok Air will arrive on Saipan at 3:40pm this Sunday, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority.<\/p>\n
The flight, which is reportedly fully booked, will be greeted by MVA officials, with the passengers expected to receive shell leis and children getting Saipan-da backpacks.<\/p>\n
MVA said the flight will bring tourists from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok where they will add more passengers and then fly directly to the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport. <\/p>\n
The flights will be operated with state-of-the-art Tupalov TU204-300, a 166-seat aircraft.<\/p>\n
While this Sunday\u2019s flight is fully booked, MVA said the mid-January 2009 charter is more than half full, and the third flight in late January also has a large number of bookings \u201cby Russians wanting to come to the warm, tropical isles of the Marianas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fiscal year-to-date numbers indicate that the Russian tourism market is up 86 percent from the same period a year ago\u2014449 in October-November 2008 to 836 this fiscal year. Just last month, 456 visitors from the former Soviet Union arrived in the CNMI, compared to 261 in November 2007.<\/p>\n
The CNMI, three hours travel from most cities in Japan, is served from Japan by Northwest Airlines. From Korea, Asiana Airlines provides daily direct flights from Seoul and four times a week from Busan.<\/p>\n
Garapan Headstart held a Christmas program yesterday and was visited by \u201cSanta Claus.\u201d Photo above shows a scene from the children\u2019s rendition of the \u201cFirst Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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