{"id":325131,"date":"2020-06-19T06:02:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T20:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=325131"},"modified":"2020-06-19T06:02:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T20:02:22","slug":"50-discount-for-airlines-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/50-discount-for-airlines-proposed\/","title":{"rendered":"50% discount for airlines proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds, third from right, gestures as she explains during yesterday\u2019s CPA board committees\u2019 meeting her proposal to give an incentive to all international and commuter airlines by giving them 50% discount on landing fees and other applicable fees until December 2020. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An incentive to give all international and commuter airlines a 50% discount on landing fees and other applicable fees until December 2020 is being looked at as a way to entice air traffic to the CNMI and revive its tourism industry.<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds suggested this during yesterday\u2019s CPA board committees\u2019 meeting and was supported by other board members\u2014Roman T. Tudela, Barrie C. Toves, Ramon A. Tebuteb, Pete P. Reyes, Thomas P. Villagomez, and Joseph M. Diaz.<\/p>\n

The members agreed with King-Hinds to put the proposed 50% discount as an action plan so that when they have a full board meeting by hopefully at the end of this month, they can revisit and adopt the incentive program.<\/p>\n

King-Hinds said that, although half of CPA\u2019s revenues are supported by airline revenues, the fact is that the tourism and the airline industries have been greatly paralyzed by COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cSo given the pandemic, all the airlines are basically struggling and having a hard time right now on getting back online. And we\u2019re trying to find a way, look for way to incentivize to get some sort of activity coming back to the CNMI,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of the ways the CPA can do that is by reducing the fees that they charge airlines, King-Hinds said.<\/p>\n

She compared the Francisco C. Ada\/Saipan International Airport to a water faucet, where the tourists are the water that come out through that faucet to support the CNMI\u2019s economy. \u201cI think that sometimes we\u2019re going to spend a little bit of money\u2014in this situation forego collection\u2014to be able to realize a long-term gain,\u201d King-Hinds said. \u201cObviously, the airline industry has been the most impacted as far as the pandemic is concerned. They\u2019re having hard time getting back online.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes as the Torres administration is proposing to reopen the CNMI\u2019s economy by July 15, and policymakers are working balancing public health concerns and the need to have an economy that supports the government\u2019s ability to provide essential services.<\/p>\n

King-Hinds concedes that the fees that they currently charge airlines are obviously what has sustained CPA\u2019s operation but she also pointed out that the money CPA has received from the CARES Act is supplementing CPA\u2019s operational budget right now.<\/p>\n

She said the long-term plan is to be able to get CPA back to the level of where it used to be in terms of airport revenue collection. \u201cWhat I\u2019m proposing basically for the board to consider is giving a sizable discount to the airlines,\u201d she said, adding that CPA also gave a three-month rent abatement to their tenants a few months ago.<\/p>\n

She said she is proposing to give a 50% discount on landing fees, enplanement, deplanement fees, and any other applicable fees except for passenger facility charges. She said CPA cannot touch the passenger facility fees pursuant to Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not expecting that, by giving this discount, a whole bunch of airlines are going to fly here because we still have the pandemic,\u201d King-Hinds said, adding in a later interview that \u201ceach country has different requirements in terms of public health measures from point of origin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chair said the board just passed CPA\u2019s budget for fiscal year 2021, which has been supplemented by the CARES Act funding. Because of the amount they got from the CARES Act, CPA can sustain itself, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea basically is to look out long-term. We are collecting zero now,\u201d King-Hinds said. From now until December, CPA is already expecting to collect zero revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we give this discount or not, we\u2019re already anticipating collecting zero. That\u2019s how we forecasted our budget. So it would not hurt us by giving a discount,\u201d she said, adding that this discount applies to all international and commuter flights because they cannot discriminate. In a later interview, King-Hinds said FAA requires that any discount should be applied to all airlines across the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what I\u2019m suggesting is a 50% discount in terms of landing fees and enplanement and deplanement,\u201d she said, adding that she is open to any suggestion that will provide relief to airlines.<\/p>\n

Diaz said it\u2019s an outstanding plan as this will extend the future plans of CPA\u2019s business partners.<\/p>\n

Villagomez suggested giving a discount for only three months, then possibly extend it.<\/p>\n

Tudela said he is inclined to support the chair\u2019s suggestion. \u201cWhen I look at that, it tells me we\u2019re actually giving 50% from zero. It doesn\u2019t really hurt CPA per se,\u201d Tudela pointed out.<\/p>\n

Tudela hopes that the incentive will lure international airlines to come in, at least before December. \u201cAnd before that, once they realize and experience the discount, they would probably be happy to stay on the route and have a continued scheduled flight,\u201d Tudela said.<\/p>\n

Reye said, \u201cI\u2019m on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toves said United Airlines and Star Marianas will be happy and welcome this proposal and may even consider providing additional flights.<\/p>\n

King-Hinds later said that everybody is pitching in and figuring out ways on how to stimulate the CNMI\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An incentive to give all international and commuter airlines a 50% discount on landing fees…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":325132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325131","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}