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Continental brings in charter flights
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Posted on Jan 05 2006
Continental Micronesia has begun providing charter flights bringing in Japanese tourists to Saipan following the pullout of Japan Airlines’ regular flights to the CNMI.
Continental joins in the efforts of other air carriers that have been providing charter services to Japanese tourists coming to the islands. JAL and Omni Airlines have been providing charter services from Japan since the holiday season.
This January, Continental Micronesia has provided at least three flights from three Japanese cities, according to vice president for sales and marketing Wally Dias.
Dias said the flights arrived on Saipan on Jan. 2, 3 and 4 from Nagoya, Niigata, and Sapporo, respectively. Continental used Boeing 737-800 jets with seat capacities of 155 for the charters.
Dias said Continental would also provide charter services next month, particularly on Feb. 8, which would ferry passengers from Nagoya to Saipan.
Since the holiday season, JAL has provided five charter flights bringing in tourists from three Japanese cities—three from Osaka and one each from Niigata and Nagoya.
Omni Airlines has eight charter flights from four Japanese cities from Dec. 30, 2005 until today. Omni has been using jets that have seat capacities of 223.The charters have brought in passengers from Osaka, Haneda, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto.
The charter flights augment Northwest Airlines’ 21 regular flights weekly—seven each from Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya. Asiana Airlines has also begun tapping the Japanese market through flights via Seoul.
The CNMI’s tourism industry players have expressed concern that JAL’s pullout would result in a loss of nearly one-third of the Japanese market, which is equivalent to over a hundred thousand Japanese tourists yearly.
The impact of the JAL pullout even became more evident last November 2005, when Japanese arrivals to the CNMI declined by 28 percent at 21,893, nearly 10,000 less than November 2004’s 30,454 Japanese tourists.
