{"id":316737,"date":"2020-01-31T06:01:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T20:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=316737"},"modified":"2020-01-31T06:01:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T20:01:25","slug":"cpa-no-ban-on-flights-with-chinese-travelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cpa-no-ban-on-flights-with-chinese-travelers\/","title":{"rendered":"CPA: No ban on flights with Chinese travelers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberly King-Hinds leads the special emergency meeting yesterday at the Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Classroom at the Airport Fire Station. (BEA CABRERA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Airline carriers that bring Chinese travelers to the CNMI through Guam, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Incheon in South Korea continue to fly to the CNMI despite an outbreak scare of the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV that first arose in Wuhan, China. These airlines are United Airlines, Hong Kong Express, T\u2019Way Airlines, Jeju Airlines, and Asiana Airlines.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sichuan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Beijing Capital Airlines that service direct flights to Saipan from China are suspended following an order from the Chinese government addressed to tour and travel agencies to stop ticket sales that removed the demand from these airlines.<\/p>\n

At an emergency meeting yesterday by the Commonwealth Ports Authority board at the Aircraft and Fire Fighting classroom of the Airport Fire Station, board chair Kimberly King-Hinds and other ranking CPA officials had a closed-door teleconference with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C. to discuss the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authority to suspend, cancel, or ban flights from any jurisdiction lies with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol,\u201d King-Hinds said. \u201c\u2026CPA does not have the authority to suspend flights or intervene in border matters. \u2026It is important to clarify that the governor himself does not have the authority to suspend or bar flights from anywhere. \u2026Basically, border matters is a Homeland Security issue\u2026and CBP is the federal agency tasked with securing our borders,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Since no announcement or directive has been released by any or both these federal agencies, CNMI borders remain open to flight flow and traffic.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Torres issued Executive Order 2020-01 that placed the CNMI under a state of significant emergency to establish response, quarantine, preventative and containment measures concerning the 2019-n COV in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

King-Hinds clarified that even though the governor has issued the EO, CPA does not have the authority to go to the airlines and order a suspension of flights. What CPA can do, King-Hinds said, is to reach out to the airlines \u201cto ask for their cooperation and collaboration\u2026to ensure that we all work together to prevent the spread of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to King-Hinds, CPA is authorizing a letter that will be written to all airlines consistent with Executive Order 2020-01.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis letter will ask the airlines or our industry partners for cooperation and collaboration in as far as helping the CNMI contain or prevent the spread the of the virus into the CNMI. That\u2019s all we can do for now. \u2026It is the position of the U.S. DHS and U.S. CBP that CPA\u2019s action in requesting for the \u2018cooperation and collaboration\u2019 are the appropriate measure at this time\u2026,\u201d King-Hinds said.<\/p>\n

In a separate statement yesterday, CPA reiterated its position that collaboration with airline carriers to suspend travel and flights into the CNMI is on a \u201cvoluntary basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy communicating with the [the Federal Aviation Administration] and U.S. [Department of Transportation], CPA will engage airline carriers to achieve the interest of ensuring the public\u2019s health and safety without impeding airline operations. To do so, CPA must focus on the goal of public safety. It is our collective responsibility to approach the coronavirus issue informed vigilance and purpose,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the cooperation of our airlines and partners in the aviation industry in dealing with public health threat that is fluid, unpredictable, and serious in scope and impact. CPA will continue to keep the traveling public, our airline partners, stakeholders and our community informed and abreast of our efforts with the [Torres] administration and Commonwealth Health Care Corp. to work together to protect our community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airline carriers that bring Chinese travelers to the CNMI through Guam, Hong Kong, Seoul, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316737","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}