‘NMI to lose air seats’

Unless new flights are introduced—especially for the Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan routes—the inbound air capacity for the CNMI is projected to decline by 25 percent this year—or a 60-percent drop from the 1997 figure.

Data presented by the Strategic Economic Development Council to the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands showed that there were 750,635 number of seats available in fiscal year 2005 and 1.6 million seats in fiscal year 1997.

In 2006, SEDC projects only 561,298 maximum air capacity unless new flights are launched.

This does not include charter flights.

The 2005 capacity included 14,880 seats each to and from Hong Kong and Taiwan and 417,367 seats to and from Japan.

Continental Airlines had decided to terminate its flights to Taiwan last November. The airline also dropped Saipan from its Guam-Hong Kong route effective November 2005.

Further, SEDC said that Japan’s air traffic would drop by 40 percent to 237,222 seats this year, primarily due to the pullout of Japan Airlines last October.

Meantime, SEDC projects an increase in air traffic from South Korea and China this year.

In FY 2005, there were 99,596 seats available from Korea and 32,970 from China. This year, SEDC projects 120,000 air capacity from Korea and 50,076 seats from China.

Other markets such as Guam is projected to decline a little from 131,579 seats in 2005 to 130,000 this year.

The Philippines would also increase a little from 23,405 seats last year to 24,000 this year. Nine years ago, air traffic from China and the Philippines was nil, SEDC said.

Japan was at its peak in FY 1007, with 658,970 seats, while seats from Guam totaled 722,646. Korea had 215,540 seats, Hong Kong had 22,386 and Taiwan had 27,386 during the same fiscal year.

Air capacity does not reflect the actual arrival of tourists but the maximum flights seats available to and from overseas.

SEDC projects a 25- to 30-percent decline in the Japan market due to the loss of JAL.

“Future air capacity will depend on charters [and] expansion of Japan’s Haneda airport by 2007,” said SEDC.

Authorities earlier said that All Nippon Air intends to fly to Saipan from Haneda Airport, which is reportedly awaiting certification to be an international airport.

In its report to HANMI, SEDC said that Northwest Airlines has the potential to increase its number of flights and size of planes.