Port improvements fail to seduce direct flights

Despite ongoing major runway improvements, Rota may still have to wait until it becomes economically viable for Continental Micronesia to resume its air service to the island.

Bill Meehan, Continental Micronesia President, told the sad news during the Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) General Membership Meeting at the Hyatt last Friday, were he was the keynote speaker.

“We cannot fly an empty aircraft just to honor a commitment,” Mr. Meehan said. “The commitment has always been there and we intend to honor it, but there has to be a demand. We need to be a successful airline first to be an airline at all.”

He also said that tour operators should also do their share in promoting Rota and come up with the demand. Last month, a total of 764 people visited Rota compared to 674 last year.

The figure shows a 13 percent increase but the interesting fact is, all of the visitors came to the island by air.

Currently, flights to Rota are being serviced by smaller turboprop aircraft. But that always has not been the case. During its infancy, Continental Micronesia considered the Rota Airport, together with Saipan, as one of its jewels in the Marianas.

That all changed, however, in 1991. Repeated take-offs and landings that have pounded the runway the past decades made its toll and affected the friction levels of its surface, prompting not a few pilots to complain about its safety.

Thus, after consulting with chief pilots, the airline suspended Boeing 727 turbojet service to Rota in 1992. Continental Micronesia cited lower braking effectiveness as a significant factor in its decision.

Mr. Meehan’s announcement that Continental Micronesia will not likely resume air service to Rota this year came in the wake of a battery of questions from the island municipality’s chief executive, Mayor Benjamin T. Manglona.

He said that back when he was Lt. Governor and Continental had to suspend jet service to Rota in 1992 , the airline company assured him that it was only temporary and that when the runway repairs have been completed they would resume flights.

Construction of the Rota International Airport runway is expected to kick off in January 2001 by Nippon Hodo Construction Limited which offered to undertake the project at a cost of $2.79 million. The winning bid includes remarking, regrooving and rehabilitation works at the island’s airport runway.

The Rota International Airport runway rehabilitation is financed through the Capital Improvement Project funds with up to $450,000 in appropriation from the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport improvement plan.

Mr. Meehan’s announcement, however, has indefinitely postponed the fruition of that commitment. Mr. Manglona ended his 10-minute speech with a challenge to Mr. Meehan, that Continental Micronesia “should make good on its commitment.”

In an earlier visit to Saipan, Mr. Meehan said the airline company is planning to initially focus on the improvement of air transport services in Guam and Saipan, as well as consistently work at strengthening the promotion of the islands as a major destination.

“We are still trying to get back on our feet on Saipan. We don’t foresee launching of flight services to either Tinian or Rota in the near future although we will continue to monitor the demand for both islands,” he told a media conference.

Continental Micronesia’s decision to abandon all direct international flights to the Northern Marianas last year resulted in the CNMI’s lost of at least 64 percent of its total air transport services in 1997.

Government statistics disclosed Continental Micronesia reduced its services to Saipan by 64 percent between 1997 and 1999, bringing only 74,000 passengers into the CNMI last year.

In 1997, Continental Micronesia had more than 700 direct Japan-Saipan flights each year.

Continental Micronesia’s passenger haul dropped by 23 percent from 166,000 to 127,000 during the period covering calendar years 1996 and 1997.

In 1998, the volume of passengers brought in by the carrier to Saipan is lower by 23 percent compared with the previous year’s level, from 127,000 to 98,000.

The figure dipped further by 25 percent last year, totaling only 74,000 passengers by end-December 1999.