CPA asks DOT for $30M for fiscal years 2024 and 2025

The Commonwealth Ports Authority has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation for supplemental funding amounting to $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 in order to keep the CNMI’s airports open until fiscal year 2026.

CPA sent Monday a letter addressed to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to ask for supplemental funding, given that CPA expects to exhaust all of its federal funds before the end of 2023. Buttigieg himself said in a response email that he and his team will consider CPA’s thoughts and supports the agency’s mission.

The CPA letter, signed by board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds and executive director Christopher Tenorio, said the agency will exhaust by the end of this fiscal year—on Sept. 30, 2023—all the federal funds it has received.

“Unfortunately, unlike most jurisdictions in the continental United States, our tourism industry has not recovered and is nowhere close to reaching pre-pandemic levels despite the remarkable investments that the CNMI government has made to invigorate the tourism industry,” stated CPA’s letter.

Specifically, CPA is asking DOT to give it $15 million in ARPA funds in fiscal year 2024 and another $15 million in fiscal year 2025, for a total of $30 million that would be used to keep CPA afloat until fiscal year 2026.

Kimberly King-Hinds, Christopher Tenorio, and Pete Buttigieg

“The additional federal assistance that CPA seeks will support in maintaining its operations, lowering the costs of air carrier operations at the airport, and attracting new air carrier operations at the airport(s)…” the letter stated. “[We] fear that without additional federal assistance for our airports, local government operations will be severely hampered, and the issues we face now will only compound, making this already vulnerable community further exploitable by bad actors that have neither United States’ nor the CNMI’s best interests in mind.”

In an email response to CPA, Buttigieg said he is honored to be entrusted with leading the U.S. Department of Transportation at this consequential moment. “Your voice is important, and my team will consider your thoughts as we work to meet the department’s mission and support the administration’s priorities: to help create millions of good-paying jobs; move people and goods safely; revitalize communities that have been left behind; tackle the climate crisis, and enable our country to compete and win in the global economy. I hope will you continue to share your views and to follow our work,” he said.

CPA previously stated that, faced with a significantly decreased revenue and its ARPA funds nearly depleted, the most viable option in order for it to survive would be to impose higher rates, which could lead to a loss in the number of the CNMI’s airline partners.

CPA fears that, if no subsidy can be provided for CPA to continue operations, it may have to soon increase its airport rates just to get by, possibly risking the loss of airline partners.