JAL to boost flights to CNMI

Japan Airlines will operate three charter flights from Fukuoka to Saipan in July 1999 as part of its ongoing promotional campaign and commitment to increase traffic this year.

According to JAL, the airline’s market share from the total number of Japanese tourists coming to the CNMI since January of this year has been over 50 percent.

The increase in JAL’s market share was primarily due to the reduction in service of Continental Micronesia and the use of smaller aircraft by Northwest Airlines.

During the recently held Golden Week Celebration from April 29-May 5, JAL’s regular scheduled flight load factor was over 80 percent for flights from Tokyo and Osaka.

In addition, the airline for the first time operated seven chartered flights — three from Nagoya, three from Fukuoka and one from Osaka. JAL’s chartered flights from Fukuoka is an important factor for market development in the Kyushu Area in the future.

Passengers arrival record last month showed a 119 percent increase in April or a total of 16,917 compared to the same period of last year. Of the various destinations served by the airline in Japan, Tokyo saw a 112 percent increase or 10,793 compared to the same month of last year, Osaka, a 121 percent jump or a total of 5,470 while the chartered flight brought in a total of 654 passengers.

Of the 34,240 total number of tourists that arrived in January, JAL brought in 17,523 passengers. In February, some 31,372 Japanese visited the CNMI, of which 16,072 passengers came from JAL. In March, some 34,081 Japanese visitors arrived on the island, of which 17,756 were brought in by JAL.

After enjoying five days of high occupancy during Japan’s Golden Week, hotels in the CNMI are now facing the same old problem –a huge number of empty rooms.

The brief high occupancy rate enjoyed by many hotels due to the influx of Japanese tourists during this period only shows that the island’s tourism economy has not recovered since the decline of the Asian economies in July 1997

The Northern Marianas would have become a more favorable destination for Japanese had Continental Micronesia did not drop its direct service from key cities in Japan to Saipan, said Iwao Sakai, president of the Japan-Saipan Travel Association. “They don’t like to wait for a long time in Guam so they do not come here anymore.
Maybe if there’s a change in schedule there would be more visitors coming here,” he said.

Based on the arrivals record of the Marianas Visitors Authority, visitors coming from Japan have shown a steady increase after suffering a double-digit decline for a long time.

Japan, the island’s main source of tourists, has been battling its worst recession since World War II. Tour operators are hoping that economic reforms being undertaken by the Japanese government would stimulate international travel.