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Officials await Haneda’s opening as int’l airport
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Posted on Sep 12 2005
Local officials are looking at Haneda Airport to save the CNMI from too large a loss when Japan Airlines finally pulls out from the islands. Haneda is reportedly up for certification to become an international airport. The facility, officially called the “Tokyo International Airport,” is actually Tokyo’s Domestic Airport. It is Japan’s busiest airport, located not far from downtown Tokyo, and has a train line and monorail running directly to the Narita International Airport.
JAL, which is set to leave the Marianas after October this year, will take with it its slot at the Narita International Airport, which means that no other airline could use that slot to and from the CNMI.
“Slot availability in Narita is an issue but Haneda is another option,” said House Commerce Committee chair Martin B. Ada in a recent media briefing.
Marianas Visitors’ Authority board chair David Sablan acknowledged that no other airline would be able to come to Saipan from Narita in view of the slot issue.
“Even if there are 10 airlines willing to fly to the CNMI from Narita, there’s no slot there [that they can] use to come here,” he said.
Earlier, business executives who met with lawmakers at the House of Representatives said that the CNMI may recover from the JAL pullout with the entry of the All Nippon Airlines. However, ANA’s schedule is dependent on the Haneda Airport’s accreditation as an international airport.
JAL ‘s departure would mean a loss of over 100,000 tourists from Japan. JAL brings about 155,865 passengers to the CNMI annually.
