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Rota eyes renewed Japan charters, Korean flights
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Posted on Sep 18 2008
[B]ROTA[/B]—A recently inked deal providing chartered airline on a Tokyo-to-Rota route is likely to see a renewal for 40 additional flights while officials here are eying the prospect of a new charter deal to bring flights from Korea.
Japanese travel firm Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. and Gov. Benigno Fitial in February reached a deal to provide 40 charter flights to Rota from Tokyo’s Narita Airport as a part of a one-year test on the viability of the island as a destination in the Japanese market. The flights began earlier this summer, serviced through Continental Airlines.
In an interview Wednesday, Henry S. Atalig, chief of the CNMI Department of Commerce on Rota said it appears that KNT is “excited by the program” and “leaning towards continuing it” with a second term of 40 more flights.
Meanwhile, local officials are now in talks with an airline service in a bid to start charted flights to Rota from Korea, he said. Atalig, however, stopped short of providing further details on the issue. Officials with the Commonwealth Ports Authority on Saipan could not be reached for comment on the issue at press time.
Any new Korean air charter service could prove a major economic boon to Rota. The Japanese charter service, for example, has already boosted the local tourism market by nearly 10 percent, according to Commerce’s statistics and Atalig said the “ripple effect” of the tourist dollars the flights have brought to the island are bolstering many businesses here.
“The impact has really reached down to the lowest echelon of the economy here,” said Atalig. “Before business was at a standstill. But the money has helped the hotels, the restaurants and the sale of agricultural products.”
