{"id":389530,"date":"2023-04-14T06:06:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=389530"},"modified":"2023-04-14T06:06:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:06:28","slug":"cpa-we-did-apply-for-eas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cpa-we-did-apply-for-eas\/","title":{"rendered":"CPA: We did apply for EAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Saipan-airport-pix-W.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-389528\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Saipan-airport-pix-W.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"519\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what the Commonwealth Ports Authority transition team stated in its report, CPA did try to avail of multiple federal grants, including the Essential Air Service program that would have subsidized interisland travel in the CNMI. Unfortunately, CPA did not qualify.<br \/>\nResponding to the CPA transition team\u2019s criticism that the agency is in \u201ccrisis\u201d because of its alleged lack of prospects in averting a fiscal downturn by the end of this fiscal year, the CPA management now says that CPA did avail itself of multiple grants.<br \/>\nOne of the grants the transition team recommended in its report was the U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s Essential Air Service program, but CPA stated it did pursue the EAS program, but was found unqualified.<br \/>\n\u201cCPA does not qualify for the EAS program because it is not an \u2018eligible place.\u2019 To be considered an \u2018eligible place,\u2019 the community must have received essential air service between Sept. 30, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011. The CNMI did not receive essential air service between those two dates,\u201d said CPA.<br \/>\nIn addition, CPA explained that for the CNMI to be eligible to participate in the EAS program, the U.S. Congress would need to amend 49 U.S. Code section 41731 and include the CNMI as an accepted location.<br \/>\n\u201cCPA has discussed EAS and its challenges with multiple CNMI officials, including Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-MP). It is CPA\u2019s understanding that there is currently no appetite in [the] U.S. Congress to expand the EAS program,\u201d said CPA.<br \/>\nAccording to online sources, EAS is a federal program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States maintain commercial air service. The program\u2019s goal is to maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service to small communities that otherwise would not be profitable.<br \/>\nIn a previous Saipan Tribune article, Bruce Jorgensen, the CPA transition team member who was tasked with looking into CPA\u2019s federal and regulatory compliance, said the CPA is in a \u201ccrisis\u201d for multiple reasons, the most worrisome of which is CPA\u2019s alleged lack of funding prospects to avert a fiscal downturn.<br \/>\nIn addition, Jorgensen claims that CPA also faces a crisis due to management issues and alleged prospective sanctions by the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to what the Commonwealth Ports Authority transition team stated in its report, CPA did&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389530","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}