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Northwest asked to set up satellite hub in CNMI
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Posted on Sep 14 2005
The Commonwealth Ports Authority is wooing Northwest Airlines to further expand operations in the Northern Marianas by establishing a satellite hub at the Saipan International Airport.
CPA executive director Carlos Salas said the Saipan airport could serve as a “congestion reliever” for Northwest’s Tokyo hub, which is the airline’s transfer point for its flights within Asia and the Pacific.
“Northwest has made no commitment to this idea, but we’re certainly keeping the door open. They could relieve the congestion out of Narita [International Airport] if they would use Saipan for connecting flights,” Salas said.
The small number of flights leaves a lot of idle time at the Saipan airport. CPA and Northwest need only to work out flight schedule matters once the airline decides in favor of the ports authority’s suggestion.
“We can talk about the schedule. After all, not all flights will be coming in at the same time,” Salas said.
Currently, Northwest operates two flights out of the Saipan International Airport—a twice-daily service to Tokyo and a daily flight to Nagoya.
Beginning Oct. 1, 2005, the airline will offer daily service between Osaka and Saipan. This flight will replace the service currently provided by Japan Airlines, which will cease regular flights to Saipan effective Oct. 4, 2005.
Northwest’s new Osaka service will be operated with Boeing 757-200 aircraft, with 20 seats in business class and 162 seats in coach class. It will provide the destination 66,430 seats annually, a 24-percent drop from the 87,360-seat capacity of JAL’s current Osaka service.
Meanwhile, CNMI officials and air carriers have yet to find an airline slot that would allow any company to replace JAL’s flight from the Narita airport to Saipan.
