OIA to help CNMI lure new airlines

Office of Insular Affairs Director Ferdinand Aranza has pledged to continue assisting the Northern Marianas government in attracting other airlines to service the islands, but said such effort depends on the market conditions.

OIA, which has jurisdiction over the CNMI, has been approached by the Commonwealth to draw support from federal agencies, particularly the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, to press its demand for direct flights to Saipan from key Asian cities.

Mr. Aranza, who visited the island last week, said his office has been “working very hard behind the scenes” with these agencies to encourage more direct flights to the CNMI.

“But the way the domestic routes are set up, this type of decisions is based upon market conditions,” he told reporters. “What we do is to continue to work behind the scenes with different agencies to continue to push the CNMI’s case before them.”

He indicated, however, that so far, DOT, FAA as well as the State department have yet to come up with definite response on whether other carriers are interested in servicing the islands.

The issue of air transportation has been raised several times by CNMI officials during talks with OIA and other federal officials — the recent of which is the Interagency Group for Insular Areas –in an effort to draw attention to the problem that has dogged the Commonwealth since 1997.

The move stemmed from the elimination of direct flights from Japan and Korea, two of the island’s biggest tourism markets, by the Continental Micronesia, which has pulled down visitor arrivals here and devastated the local tourism industry.

Last month, Mr. Aranza threw its support behind the protest lodged by the island government against the Guam-based carrier — the largest in the region — for its treatment of Saipan and Guam as co-terminals.

He told Commonwealth Ports Authority, which initiated the protest, that OIA and other concerned federal agencies are working at providing better air transport service to the Commonwealth.

In recent months, both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed resolutions urging the federal agency to help Micronesian entities establish a regional airline as an alternative to Continental.

The plan has already become a three-year battle by both leaders from the CNMI and other island governments with calls for feasibility studies and meetings with other airlines amid efforts by Continental to bridge differences.

The carrier has defended its decision to cut down its direct service to Micronesian islands in view of the shrinking passenger haul from Japan and Korea which continue to experience economic instability due to their slow recovery in the past one year.