Gov. Ralph DLG Torres recently met with Skymark Airlines, Japan\u2019s third largest carrier headquartered at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, to discuss the launch of direct flight services from Japan to Saipan during the upcoming winter schedule.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI met with Skymark Airlines executives a couple [of] months ago to discuss the launch of direct flights from Japan to Saipan later this year.\u00a0I am pleased to say that Skymark has begun evaluating the launch of direct flights, targeting a launch during the upcoming winter schedule.\u00a0They have met with the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, and other government agencies who have all offered their full support to Skymark.\u00a0A more formal announcement will be made as soon as their evaluation process and official decision is complete,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
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The announcement comes at a critical time as Delta Air Lines suspends flights to the Marianas effective May 6, 2018.<\/p>\n
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In late February, Torres and MVA managing director Christopher A. Concepcion met with several local Japan market stakeholders to underscore the importance of the historical Japan market and the plans to revitalize it moving forward.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is important to have our local stakeholders and partners involved in our process of finding viable airlines to service our Japan market. The Marianas tourism industry was built by Japanese investment over 40 years ago, and our histories and cultures remain intertwined,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy administration, MVA, CPA and the Legislature have made this a high priority in the last several months, and we are now seeing tangible signs of progress with Skymark indicating their plans to fly to the CNMI in the next several months,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
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Torres also announced that 28 flights will be operated from Narita International Airport to Saipan and that the CNMI is currently in talks with United Airlines and other carriers on operating direct flights to Japan to fill the void between now and when Skymark launches later this year.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur community is making great strides, and I will make sure we will continue to leverage the resources we have for the Japanese market for a more diverse visitor market\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe MVA thanks Gov. Torres and his administration for their continual support of the Japan market and of MVA\u2019s ongoing efforts. Their commitment to utilize all available resources to revitalize this key market is welcome news for our stakeholders and the Marianas,\u201d Concepcion said. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov. Ralph DLG Torres recently met with Skymark Airlines, Japan\u2019s third largest carrier headquartered at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1355],"tags":[26,170,212,21089],"class_list":["post-275436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-cnmi","tag-japan","tag-mva","tag-skymark-airlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275436","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=275436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}