Mandarin Air finds new buyer for Saipan charter seats

Mandarin Airlines has sealed a business agreement with a group of Taiwan-based tour operators which will buy the charter seats held previously by Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino for flights between Taipei and Saipan.

Saipan station manager Charlie Ling disclosed yesterday a group of five tour operators from Taiwan is taking over 100 airline seats per flight even before the charter agreement with Tinian Dynasty expires on Friday.

“Charter seats for Tinian Dynasty has already been stopped. We have found a new buyer for 100 charter seats per flight. The buyers are the same tour operators in Taipei which handled one of two weekly schedules,” Mr. Ling said.

Mandarin Airlines flies Taipei-Saipan every Monday and Friday. Tinian Dynasty handled the charter flight every Friday while tour operators from Taipei takes charge of the Monday flight.

Mr. Ling said the group of tour operators will now handle 100 charter seats for both the Monday and Friday flights.

He pointed out that Mandarin Airlines intends to continue with its direct service between the Taiwan capital and Saipan unless the company encounters too much of a problem with regards to marketing and promotional campaign for the destination.

“We will continue to extend the direct service from Taipei to Saipan if we don’t have too much marketing problems. We will continue with the service,” the airline company official told an interview.

The charter agreement between Mandarin Airlines and Tinian Dynasty was supposed to expire November 17. This was anticipated to result in the cancellation of Taipei-Saipan charter flights unless a new buyer for the Friday charter seats are found.

Tinian Dynasty has previously asked the airline company to reduce the charter seats from 138 to 70 due to the decline in the number of Taiwanese tourists coming to the island. But this will only result to an increase in the price of airfare, said Mr. Ling.

Mandarin Airlines’ September load factor dropped by 12 percentage points from 87 in August to 75 percent, representing 1,034 passengers ferried between Taipei and Saipan.

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.

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.

At least one in every four Taiwanese travel abroad every year although mainland China has remained the most popular destination in recent years. The island-nation, which is home to over 22 million people, has one of the best standards of living in the world.

Mandarin Air uses B737-800 aircraft in all of its charter flights between Taipei and Saipan. The aircraft can accommodate 158 passengers.