Previous Story
Airlines get $500K in discounts under incentive program
|
Posted on Aug 20 2004
Airlines were able to save a little over $500,000 in airport fees last year due to the airline incentive program, CPA executive director Carlos Salas said.
Established in 1999, the incentive program aims to encourage airlines to establish direct non-stop service from formerly unserved markets and to assist the Commonwealth in reviving the tourism industry.
Under this program, airlines get a 50-percent discount on airport fees for bringing in additional passengers to the CNMI. CPA charges airlines a departure facility service fee of $8 and an arrival fee of $2 per passenger.
“Last year, we gave a little over half a million dollars in discounts to airlines through the incentive program,” Salas said.
Among the airlines that opened new routes over the past year were Continental Airlines, which established a direct Saipan-Manila service last December; Northwest Airlines, which started a daily nonstop service between Nagoya and Saipan last October; and China Eastern Airline, which started charter flights between Shanghai and Saipan last January.
During its regular meeting at the Port of Saipan yesterday, the CPA board extended the airline incentive program for another year, or from Oct. 1, 2004 through Sept. 30, 2005.
In a board resolution, the board listed Pusan, Haneda, Fukuoka, Sendai, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Beijing as some of the markets currently not served by airlines operating in the Commonwealth.
Salas earlier said that the incentive program has helped passenger arrivals keep afloat despite the series of unfortunate world events that hit the travel industry. These events were the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the SARS epidemic, and the outbreak of the Iraq war last year.
Salas had earlier said the incentive program might have resulted in a huge rebound in passenger arrivals if not for these events.
“Unfortunately, with all these things happening at the same time, it just did not produce the result that we want, but it did mitigate some of the problems,” Salas had added.
