CNMI woos Aloha Airlines

The Commonwealth Ports Authority has asked Aloha Airlines to take advantage of the CNMI’s airline incentive program by providing direct service to Saipan from other destinations in Asia.

In a letter to James King, Aloha’s vice president for planning and development, CPA Executive Director Carlos H. Salas has expressed interest in meeting with him sometime this November to discuss the possibility of starting an air service.

Under the incentive program approved by the CPA board, any signatory or new airline serving new markets between Saipan and international destinations shall be given a 50 percent discount on all arrival and departure fees. The incentive will be implemented until Oct. 31, 2000.

CPA has been working with the Governor’s Aviation Task Force in trying to entice Far Eastern Air Transport, Eva Air, Air Nauru and Cebu Pacific to fly to Saipan to boost traffic and save the declining tourism economy.

The first airline incentive program granted by the CPA board covered a 50 percent cut in departure and arrival fees to all signatory airlines servicing the CNMI in an effort to encourage them in boosting passenger traffic.

Early this year, the CPA board approved an increase in its airport rate which is set to take effect beginning March 1, 2000, because it was under pressure to generate the much-needed revenue to meet debt service coverage.

Salas said the grant of incentives to carriers developing new markets will help the Korean market with the recent decision of Asiana Airlines to carry out Pusan-Seoul chartered flights twice a week beginning Oct. 12 until end of December 1999 to cash in on the expected increase of the honeymoon market.

Asiana is also looking at the possibility of having a regular Pusan-Saipan flight in the middle of next year. The airline will use a B-737 with a seating capacity of 145 in its Pusan-Saipan charter flights.

Northwest Airlines has taken advantage of the incentive program when it upgraded its aircraft from a DC10 to a B747 last Oct. 1, 1999 between Saipan and Tokyo. This has resulted in an increase in seating capacity in both markets by 32 percent or an additional 630 seats per week for Saipan market.

With the reduction in Continental Micronesia’s direct flights from various destinations in Japan to Saipan, CPA Board Chairman Roman S. Palacios has expressed hope that efforts to create a regional airline as an alternative would push through since this would greatly help revive the island’s slumping tourism economy.