Cape Air and Continental Micronesia yesterday bared plans to expand operations throughout Micronesia, as they vowed to keep offering affordable fares for Continental Connection\u2019s new service between Guam and Saipan.<\/p>\n
Daniel Wolf, the Massachusetts-based president of Cape Air, said he looks forward to seeing the partnership grow in the Marianas\u2014which, he said, is the farthest destination that Cape Air has ventured into.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a significant regional operation in the Caribbean and we also have one in Southern Florida, as well as our main base, which is in New England. So we\u2019ve experienced setting up remote operations before. Not this far away, however. [The Marianas] is 14 time zones away; it\u2019s a long way from home,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve really found a new home here. We sent out a lot of parts, a lot of tooling to [start this new service]. We really prepared to make a go at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said discussions are now underway between Cape Air and Continental Micronesia regarding plans to expand the operation of Continental Connection to other islands in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re having some very creative and interesting discussions with Continental Micronesia to see if we might help them expand their services even further in the region. Nothing definite yet, but we are looking at that,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n
Tinian, Yap, and Palau are some of the islands that both airline companies are considering for the expansion plan, he added.<\/p>\n
Wolf said Cape Air currently has eight pilots stationed in the Marianas\u2014plus the regional administrator, who is a qualified pilot. But he added that the airline could double the number in the next year or so, depending on market demand.<\/p>\n
Wally Dias, Continental Micronesia staff vice president for sales and marketing, echoed Wolf\u2019s statement on the planned expansion. He reported that the airline companies are now studying if they can utilize Cessna 402 aircraft earlier used for Continental Connection\u2019s Guam-Rota flights for other markets in the region.<\/p>\n
The commuter service between Guam and Rota began on July 1. Starting last Sunday, Cape Air will use 46-seat ATR-42 aircraft for the Guam-Rota-Saipan flights.<\/p>\n
More flights, lower fares<\/p>\n
With the new service, Continental Connection now has up to seven flights between the three islands, including two flights between Guam and Saipan serviced by Boeing 737-800 jet aircraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to augment service because with our old schedule, if you recall, it was very inconvenient for business people to travel back and forth between Guam and Saipan. But we couldn\u2019t put another flight into the market because we operated only [Boeing 737s], which are too big and hard to fill up given the amount of people that are [using the service],\u201d Dias said.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cSo bringing out the new ATR aircraft, that has 46 seats, it is very easy for us to add more seats and provide more frequent flights. We believe that adding more frequencies will create more demand because it makes it more convenient to go back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, Continental Connection has reduced fares by as much as 38 percent. The current round-trip airfare from Guam to Saipan or Rota is as low as $106 per passenger. The airline has also eliminated three-day advance purchase fares, allowing customers to buy tickets a day before departure.<\/p>\n
Dias said airfares are 100 percent refundable, and carry no other restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, we\u2019ve restructured our airfare so that the next lowest fare for the market will be a $140 roundtrip between Saipan and Guam. That will be a much more affordable airfare than what we\u2019ve previously had in the market place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although this introductory price offer will be effective only until Sept. 30, Wolf vowed that Continental Connection would do its best to maintain the low fare and provide discounts and incentives for frequent travelers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be working on things like frequent flyer books, so that people who really use the service a lot can take advantage of some discounts as well,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n
Passenger comfort<\/p>\n
Dias also assured passengers of better services and more comfort when they avail of Continental Connection\u2019s new service.<\/p>\n
Aside from providing more seats, the ATR-42 aircraft servicing the new flights have a pressurized cabin and a lavatory on board. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also a little bit bigger than the normal commuter aircraft that fly between the islands because we\u2019re actually able to put in regular Continental coach seats in the aircraft. It\u2019s somewhat like the seats that you\u2019re familiar with on some of the jet service,\u201d Dias said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cape Air and Continental Micronesia yesterday bared plans to expand operations throughout Micronesia, as they vowed to keep offering affordable fares for Continental Connection\u2019s new service between Guam and Saipan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83023","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\/83023","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=83023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}