‘Star Marianas plans to fly to Rota; Freedom Air to resume daily flights’

Freedom Air will resume daily flights to Rota and will go back to using a 30-seater aircraft next week, while Star Marianas Air Inc. plans to fly to Rota as early as end-March, airline officials and senators separately said yesterday.

Dennis Cruz, Freedom Air-CNMI station manager, confirmed yesterday that Freedom Air will resume daily flights to Rota as early as next week and will resume the use of 30-seater aircraft that will accommodate more passengers to and from Rota.

“Yes I can confirm we will be back to normal daily flights, and we will start using again the 30-seater aircraft,” Cruz told Saipan Tribune.

Since November, Freedom Air has been using a seven-seater aircraft to give way to “regular maintenance” of the 30-seater aircraft. Since then, it has also stopped flying to Rota on Mondays and Fridays.

Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu (Ind-Rota) and Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) separately said they welcome Freedom Air’s decision to resume normal operations.

Ayuyu and Manglona also said the owner of Rota Resort, Hee Cho, has been working with Star Marianas Air Inc. so that the airline will be able to provide flights to and from Rota as early as the last week of March.

Ayuyu said Star Marianas Air is looking at using two nine-seater aircraft for the Rota flights.

An official from Star Marianas on Tinian said yesterday they need to get clearance from the management before speaking directly to the media.

Manglona and Ayuyu said they estimate that arrivals on Rota dropped by 80 percent because of lack of flights and the use of smaller aircraft since last year.

“We’re down to seven-seater aircraft and they only fly on certain days… You know there’s something terribly wrong when it takes seven hours to get to Rota from Saipan,” Manglona said.

He cited as an example his own experience on Friday. He said to be able to fly back to Rota, he had to check in for a flight to Guam at 8pm. In Guam, they had to wait some four hours to take the 2:10am flight to Rota.

“By the time we reached home, from the airport to the house, it’s already 3:30am,” he said. “It’s just ridiculous. We’ve been seeking assistance from Cape Air, Freedom Air, and Star Marianas. Not only is the air fare expensive, you cannot even get a seat.”

Manglona added that when Freedom Air stopped its daily flights and used the seven-seater aircraft, it almost shut down Rota’s tourism industry. Domestic travel and medical referrals have also been negatively impacted.

With the resumption of Freedom Air’s daily flights and its use of a bigger aircraft, coupled with Star Marianas Air’s new flights to Rota, the senators hope that Rota’s tourism will grow once again.

However, Manglona said, Cape Air will stop its Saipan-Rota-Guam flights on March 25.

“They will go directly to Guam. So if you want to go to Guam, you have to wait for four hours or so,” he said.