{"id":260680,"date":"2017-09-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=260680"},"modified":"2017-09-20T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T20:00:00","slug":"another-1-5m-saipan-jet-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/another-1-5m-saipan-jet-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Another $1.5M for Saipan jet bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_260686\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-260686\" style=\"width: 252px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Gregorio-Kilili-Sablan-252x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-260686\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-260686\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sablan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Commonwealth Ports Authority is receiving an additional $1,531,825 in federal funding to replace three passenger loading bridges at the Francisco C. Ada\/Saipan International Airport. <\/p>\n<p>The money, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) yesterday, is being added to the $3,761,807 announced in July in response to higher than expected bids submitted for the work. <\/p>\n<p>Total funding for the three jet bridges is now $5,293,632. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst-class airports cost money to build and maintain,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cAnd with tourism as the main driver of our economy, the Northern Marianas has to provide a first-class visitor experience that is comfortable, convenient, and safe from the moment our guests step off their plane to the moment they depart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s investment of federal funds will help ensure that tourists and traveling residents, as well, have a good travel experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The funding going to the CPA comes through the Federal Aviation Administration. <\/p>\n<p>Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved $16.6 billion for the FAA in fiscal year 2018, a $153-million increase over this year\u2019s appropriation.<\/p>\n<p>The Francisco C. Ada\/ Saipan International Airport is federally designated as a small-hub primary airport, which makes it eligible to share in these funds that Congress provides to the FAA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout this investment of federal dollars,\u201d said Sablan, \u201csmall-hub airports\u2014like Saipan\u2019s and others around our country\u2014would find it difficult to keep up with the multi-million dollars costs of keeping facilities modernized and in good repair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Small-hub airports handle about 9 percent of total U.S. passenger traffic, but receive 14 percent of federal airport improvement monies. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commonwealth Ports Authority is receiving an additional $1,531,825 in federal funding to replace three&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":260686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[124,126,1002,1394],"class_list":["post-260680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cpa","tag-faa","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-northern-marianas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}