Bourse decline pulls down arrivals from Taiwan

Major plunge in Taipei stocks pulled down the number of outbound Taiwanese travelers last month, reflecting a significant drop in Mandarin Airlines’ visitor arrivals statistics from the country to Saipan.

Mandarin Air Saipan Station Manager Charlie Ling disclosed the carrier’s September load factor dropped by 12 percentage points from 87 in August to 75 percent, representing 1,034 passengers ferried between Taipei and Saipan.

“Part of the reason is the dramatic fall of Taipei stocks in the last few weeks which basically weakened most of our clients spending power since quite a big number of them hold stocks in the country’s bourse,” Mr. Ling said.

Taiwanese stock investors who now face significant losses in their bourse investments due to economic slowdown comprise a big slice of Mandarin Air’s passengers, according to the airline executive.

“Because of these apparent losses in their investments, they appear to have allocated lesser money for leisure and entertainment which explains the drop in our September load factor,” Mr. Ling told an interview.

He also pointed out that the drop was not confined to Saipan-bound travelers but to all routes served by Mandarin Air in major tour destinations in Asian countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Mandarin Air’s load factor dropped between July and August from 91 percent to 87 percent primarily because August is a traditionally off-peak period.

Mandarin Air expects passenger haul to pick up again beginning November up until February, or during the Christmas season and the Chinese New Year, and then again during the summer months.

Mr. Ling mentioned that Mandarin Airlines may be able to increase flights to Saipan when three new Boeing 737-800 aircraft purchased by its parent company, China Airlines, arrive in January and February of next year.

Travelers from Taiwan have slowly made themselves known as the next most important market for the CNMI tourism industry as the Taipei-based carrier reported that it has exceeded the 80 percent load factor target in the first four months of its flight services to the island.

The carrier reported the highest load factor in July that reached 91 percent. Mr. Ling disclosed increasing passenger haul with its 73 percent load factor in May growing to 87 percent the following month.

Mandarin Air has scheduled to deploy 69 flights until the end of the year. It uses B737-800 aircraft in all of its charter flights between Taipei and Saipan. The aircraft can accommodate 158 passengers.

With the beginning of direct air service between Taipei and Saipan, Commonwealth officials are expecting to get a good share of over five million Taiwanese who take overseas travels once every year.