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Asiana to suspend evening flights for 2 days
Flights will resume on Feb. 20
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Posted on Feb 17 2020
Asiana Airlines notified the Commonwealth Ports Authority last Friday that they would be suspending two of their evening flights to the CNMI for just two days due to low passenger loads.
In an interview with CPA board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds last Friday, Asiana Airlines confirmed they would be suspending the evening flights for Feb. 18 and 19 because of low passenger loads.
“We just got a phone call this afternoon that [Asiana] will be suspending their Feb. 18 and 19 flights and these are the evening flights and will resume on Feb. 20 due to low passenger loads,” she said.
King-Hinds explained that Asiana assured CPA that they would return to their normal schedule on Feb. 20.
“[Asiana] stated that they are going to resume on Feb. 20. I think what they’re doing is moving travelers to another day so they can have a full load,” she said.
According to King-Hinds, low passenger loads is unfortunately a worldwide trend at the moment, especially with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has instilled fear in people around the world.
“People are just scared to travel and being an economy that is completely reliant on the tourists arriving and spending their money here, and planes coming here, we’re in for some serious hard times and people have to take a seriously hard look in terms of how to conserve finances at this point in time,” she said.
King-Hinds said the issue with Asiana suspending two flights in two days is a clear indication of just how uncertain times are for everyone.
“As we’re sitting here discussing austerity measures, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty in terms of whether the numbers we have adopted today are going to hold moving forward, given flights right now being so uncertain,” she said.
In a previous interview, King-Hinds also wanted to clarify, in light of recent rumors, that Asiana will only be canceling their seasonal flights starting March 1, but it is not because of the novel coronavirus.
“Seasonally [Asiana] provides extra flights and so they provided extra afternoon flights for the winter season. Winter season is coming to an end and because it’s coming to an end, they’re back to normal schedule. They are just following procedure,” she said.
