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Asiana to return after year-plus absence
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Posted on Jun 16 2021
After over a year since the suspension of Asiana Airlines flights to the CNMI, the airline is finally scheduled to return to Saipan starting July.
The return of Korea’s flagship airline to the CNMI was first reported by Korean media, with one report saying the airline will start with a once-a-week service to the island.
Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said she is aware of a charter flight scheduled for July 17 and hopes to see regular flights in the near future.
“I am aware that there’s a charter flight scheduled to come on July 17. It is my hope to see regularly scheduled flights in the near future. Asiana is a valued partner of not just CPA but the entire CNMI and we are hopeful that we can come out of this pandemic better and stronger together,” she said.
According to a Korea-based media outlet, Korea Joong Ang Daily, that could happen as soon as the middle of next month, with Asiana Airlines set to resume once-a-week flight service to Saipan starting July 24. The Asiana flight, which will reportedly use a 174-seater A321, expects to leave Incheon at 9am and return the same day, departing at 4pm from Saipan and arriving at Incheon at 7:40pm.
Korea Joong Ang Daily reports that the airline hopes to activate international travel and the airline market with the resumption of the Saipan route as the first step.
The report also states that Asiana Airlines plans to increase the number of available routes in response to talks with a number of countries, including Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, to allow quarantine-free package tours for vaccinated people.
Asiana Airlines suspended the Incheon-Saipan route in March 2020.
Right now, 59.3% of the CNMI’s eligible population has already been vaccinated and is has one of the lowest infection rates in the world.
