140 Russians arrive in Vlad Air charter

Vladivostok Air’s first of three charter flights touched down at the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport at 3:40pm yesterday with 140 Russians packing the flight to capacity.

Marianas Visitors Authority marketing manager Bruce A. Bateman was on hand, along with several MVA staff, to welcome the arrivals with shell leis and warm “hafa adai” greetings.

“We’re just happy as it can be over their arrival. Especially considering some hoops that had to be jumped through in order to accomplish it. We’re excited about the possibilities about the future of these flights,” he said.

Bateman said passengers of the charter flight needed to go through inspection by the Transportation Security Administration in Japan before proceeding to the CNMI.

“It was a bit difficult to have all the necessary paperwork completed so that these flights could actually fly in here. Specifically, there were problems with TSA but those were accomplished with the aircraft actually stopping off in Japan. They inspected it there before it was allowed to come in here. That’s solved the problem and they accomplished their mission and we’re pretty happy to welcome them all here,” he said.

Bateman said the great reception the charter flight from Vladivostok got bodes well for the future of the market.

“Especially considering that Vlad Avia, if they can fill these three charter flights, are interested in working in regularly scheduled flights from these Far Eastern Russian vity. MVA is certainly trying to help all we can in promoting these flights and helping these people fill their airplanes so they in turn could bring in long staying tourists to our area.”

The visitors from the former Soviet Union are expected to stay in the CNMI until Jan. 7 and Jan. 18, which incidentally are the arrival dates of the other two charter flights.

The Vladivostok Air charter flights are using Russian-built Tupolev TU204-300 with capacity got eight business class and 132 economy class seats—bringing the total maximum capacity of passengers at 140 each flight.

Vladivostok Air and fellow Russian carrier DalAvia flew special charter flights to the CNMI in the waning days of 2007, which exemplied the islands’ growing appeal to the market.

Fiscal year to date number indicate that the Russian tourism market is up 86 percent from the same period year ago—449 in October-November 2008 to 836 in the same period in fiscal year 2009. Just last month, 456 visitors from the former Soviet Union arrived in the CNMI, compared to 261 in November 2007.

The CNMI, three hours travel from most cities in Japan, are served from Japan by Northwest Airlines. From Korea, Asiana Airlines provides daily direct flights from Seoul and four times a week from Busan.

Vladivostok Air, founded in 1932, is now the largest air carrier in Russia’s Far East. It carries over 700,000 passengers annually and provide flight service to 32 domestic destinations as well as 12 international destinations.