TO ENTICE NEW CARRIERS CNMI asked to show Saipan is a profitable route

The Commonwealth’s efforts to encourage more foreign carriers to dispatch air transport services into the Northern Marianas depends largely on the government’s ability to make a strong presentation among airline companies that Saipan could be a profitable route.

“If Saipan can make a case that it could be a profitable route, then it is currently easier for the four incumbent combination carriers – Northwest, United, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines – to begin service between any point in Japan and any point in the U.S. including Guam and Saipan as they can operate without any frequency limits,” said Airports Council Senior Vice President for International Affairs Diane I. Peterson.

In her letter to CNMI Ports Authority Executive Director Carlos H. Salas, Ms. Peterson pointed out that Saipan needs to show that there is enough traffic and potential passengers to make Saipan a productive route for the carriers.

“It would be helpful if Saipan could show that at least a significant number of the passengers are higher yield passengers as those are the ones most attractive to carriers,” she told Mr. Salas.

She added that carriers decide on the routes to serve based on the number and kind of passengers, cargo, how well a route fits into an airline company’s system, availability of aircraft, crew slots and how a route stacks up against others in terms of profitability.

At the same time, Ms. Peterson said the CNMI government may also consider some third country carriers as potential prospects that have fifth freedom rights to serve Saipan like Brunei, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

She said, however, that even if these countries have the rights from the U.S., they may not have the necessary fifth freedom rights from Japan.

“While looking for new and expanded services, Saipan probably should keep close tabs on its current services to Japan in order to detect any plans by carriers to unfavorably alter their service patterns,” said Ms. Peterson.

Carriers which already serve Saipan are also the best candidates for trying to obtain expanded and new services, said the ACI-North America official.

Many of the efforts regarding U.S. international aviation relations and marketing can require a substantial amount of time and effort to accomplish, she added.

The ACI previously urged the CNMI ports authority to join the United States delegation in a still unscheduled meeting with the Japanese government on air service rights to be able to express its concerns on the CNMI’s air transport conditions.

This has been the practice of many U.S. airports administrations throughout the mainland and other American territories in order to be sure that the federal government is aware of their interests, said ACI Director for International Affairs John M. Kloosterman.

Mr. Kloosterman was referring to a letter from CPA Executive Director Carlos H. Salas, seeking ACI-North America’s assistance in efforts to increase direct flights from major Asian cities to the Northern Marianas.

CPA has brought the islands’ air transport woes to the attention of the ACI-NA, as it asked the Council’s help in CNMI efforts to rebuild the islands’ struggling tourism industry, which currently thirsts for additional nonstop international flights.

At the same time, the CPA official requested the ACI-NA to ask the U.S. Government and Japanese aviation officials to include Saipan in the list of destinations for the second, short runway at the Narita Airport in Japan.

Japan’s estimate of departing-flight distance for Narita Airport’s Runway B is 1,500 miles which include Guam, Seoul, Beijing and Shanghai. The list does not include Hong Kong as well.