Asiana to suspend flights next month

Asiana Airlines is expected to suspend its flights to the CNMI starting March 4.

The Commonwealth Ports Authority was informed last week that Asiana will be suspending its flights starting on March 4, until further notice. The move is expected to hurt the CNMI’s tourism sector, which is still recovering from the COVID-19 devastation, since Korean travelers are the CNMI’s primary tourism market for now.

According to CPA chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds, although it’s unfortunate that they have to suspend flights, they are hopeful that they will come back and continue to provide service between South Korea and Saipan.

“What I understand is that they’re going through a bankruptcy so there’s a lot of stuff that goes into that discussion. I’m not too familiar, but I’m hoping that they will come back,” she said.

Another airline providing air seats from South Korea, T’way Air, is also expected to reduce the number of weekly flights from four times a week to twice a week. However, the airline is expecting to return to daily operations from April 28 to June 1.

Jeju Airlines has also requested approval for additional flights beginning on April 12, according to CPA.

This last month, a total of 56 flights were operated by Jeju Air, T’way Air, and Asiana Airlines from Seoul to Saipan, providing 10,512 air seats to the CNMI.

In February alone, T’way doubled its current four flights a week to eight flights, increasing the total flights for the month to 69 flights, with 12,969 available air seats.

“The doubling of flights by T’way in February is a very good sign of continued interest in the Marianas by South Koreans travelers, coupled with gradual stabilization of the exchange rate that we’ve battling for several months as a U.S. dollar-based destination,” MVA acting board chair Gloria Cavanagh previously said.

Travel agents report almost 80% of the additional February flights were booked.

In March 2023, although the Marianas is expecting to lose twice weekly direct flights by Asiana Airlines, T’way is scheduled to pick up the slack with twice weekly charter flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays, resulting in a small increase of 58 flights and 10,962 compared to January.

The charter flights will continue twice weekly flights from March 1, to April 26.

The additional T’way flights are only available for booking through main travel agencies in Korea under a co-op promotion between the airline and travel agencies.