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‘MVA eyeing Russian charter flights’
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Posted on Aug 26 2008
The Marianas Visitors Authority is now in talks with a Russian airline, Dalavia, on the prospect of establishing a new chartered flight service from Russia to Saipan, according to a confidential tourism industry source.
The talks, which began nearly one year ago, are still ongoing, the source says, yet Dalavia is considering the creation of charter flight service to Saipan on a biweekly basis.
News of the potential charter flight deal comes amid a significant upswing in Russian tourism to Saipan. While the total number of Russian visitors arriving in the CNMI has remained relatively low compared to arrivals from Asian markets like Japan and Korea, it saw a 158-percent increase in June over the same month in 2007, rising to 834 tourists, according to MVA statistics.
Tourism officials have long said that Russian visitors are a key demographic for Saipan. They tend to stay longer in the CNMI than other tourists and spend more.
According to a profile of Dalavia available on the Internet, the company is based in Khabarovsk, Russia and was founded in 1953 as Khabarovsk Aviation Enterprise.
MVA declined to respond to a request for comment.
