About a hundred tourists were stranded for a day on Saipan due to the cancellation of a Northwest Airline flight to Nagoya yesterday. <\/p>\n
The passengers were scheduled to leave at 8:55am yesterday. <\/p>\n
A group of 45 tourists staying at the Hyatt Regency Saipan said they were already on the plane but were asked to disembark due to a \u201cmaintenance problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to come back here to the hotel. It\u2019s not good because these people have to be back to work tomorrow,\u201d said tour escort Yukiko Tachibana in an interview.<\/p>\n
She said the tourists spent three days on the island. They were handled by the JTB PMT tour company.<\/p>\n
Youhei Ichikawa of JTB PMT said they have a total of 75 tourists who got stranded yesterday due to the cancelled flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always have that problem,\u201d said Ichikawa.<\/p>\n
He said this was not the first time that Northwest cancelled its flights.<\/p>\n
The Saipan Tribune called and e-mailed NWA officials, including Guam and Saipan manager Richard A. Parsons, but the airline had issued no statements as of press time.<\/p>\n
In February this year, Northwest Airlines expressed its \u201ccontinued dedication to the CNMI and Japan market\u201d as it announced that it would introduce a new second nonstop service between Tokyo\u2019s Narita Airport and Saipan. <\/p>\n
The new service is set to begin on April 24, 2006, using a second Boeing 747 Jumbo flying three times a week. <\/p>\n
The flight will carry 400 economy and 30 business class passengers, for a total of 430 seats.<\/p>\n
The second NW flight from Tokyo will generate an additional 5,160 additional seats from Japan per month, which is seen as a major boost for the CNMI\u2019s tourism industry.<\/p>\n
Effective Oct. 1 last year, Northwest also introduced daily nonstop flights between Osaka and Saipan.<\/p>\n
This came three days before Japan Airlines stopped its regular flights to the island after 28 years.<\/p>\n
Northwest also offers daily service from Saipan to Tokyo and Nagoya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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