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<\/p>\nAs if it being the first flight back after a two-year hiatus wasn\u2019t special enough, the return of Hong Kong Airlines to Saipan will be made extra special with the possibility of the company\u2019s chairman himself piloting the inaugural flight back to Saipan on April 29.<\/p>\n
The CNMI, for months, has been preparing for the long-awaited return of Hong Kong Airlines\u2014which essentially puts the CNMI\u2019s tourism industry on the right track to recovery post-COVID-19 as it opens up a third source market.<\/p>\n
However, it seems as though HK Airlines\u2019 return is just as special to the HK Airlines as it is to the CNMI with the company\u2019s chairman himself\u2014Sun Jianfeng Jeff\u2014possibly serving as the captain of the upcoming April 29 flight to Saipan.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion, he said MVA is very excited about this recent development and it makes the HK Airlines\u2019 return even more special.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were informed by Hong Kong Airlines that the chairman of the company, who is also a licensed pilot, [may] be piloting the inaugural flight. We\u2019re very excited. It\u2019s a big deal to have the chairman of the company [possibly] pilot the flight to Saipan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For the CNMI\u2019s part, Concepcion said MVA has arranged for Lt. Gov. David Apatang and Judy Torres, MVA deputy managing director, to represent the CNMI in the festivities HK Airlines will be hosting in honor of their inaugural return to Saipan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHong Kong is making a big deal out of this inaugural flight, there will be a ceremonial launch in Hong Kong and we want to make sure the CNMI is represented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In addition, Concepcion shared that HK Airlines\u2019 first flight back will be fully booked (as well as the flights for the first few weeks) which indicates that the flights are already selling well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inaugural flight will be a full flight with the entire 292 capacity, filled. All indications are that the flights are selling very well. We understand that the first few weeks of the flight are already sold out. It\u2019s a good indication that there is a demand. We also understand that there are internal discussions about seeing if there is a possibility of increasing the frequency of these flights which bodes well for the future of the market. This is the first flight back from Hong Kong, basically the China region, since COVID so we\u2019re very excited to take this first step towards opening a third-source market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Concepcion noted that Hong Kong, historically, has been a strong market for the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have two airlines flying the route: Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express. Pre-COVID, the demand was pretty good. But we are looking beyond the Hong Kong market because Hong Kong Airlines has a vast route network throughout Asia. They fly to nine different cities in China, four different cities in Japan, they fly to Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, and Saipan is their first entry to the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MVA board chair Gloria Cavanagh said she looks forward to the return of HK Airlines and hopes that the market will only continue to prosper.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my understanding, it looks like the load factors are really good. It looks like the projections of the bookings are very good and so it\u2019s something very positive for the CNMI and we hope it continues for the rest of the year and so on after that. Hopefully HK Airlines will add additional flights weekly. It\u2019s a good thing, it\u2019s a positive thing, and we just hope for much success to the tour agencies that are taking a big bulk of the risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Christopher A. Concepcion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As if it being the first flight back after a two-year hiatus wasn\u2019t special enough,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407521","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\/407521","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}