MSA makes first Rota–Guam flight

Marianas Southern Airway and Commonwealth officials are joined by other dignitaries to cut the ribbon for the airline’s inaugural flight from Rota to Guam over the weekend. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Marianas Southern Airway officially kicked off its Rota-Guam route with an inaugural flight from Rota to Guam and back over the weekend.

Last Friday, Rota dignitaries and members of the Rota community joined Marianas Southern Airways officials and staff in launching the airline’s inaugural flight from Rota to Guam at around 11am.

Among the passengers of MSA’s first official Rota–Guam flight were Sen. Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), Sen. Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota), Rota Mayor Aubry Hocog, Rep. Julie Ogo (Ind-Rota), and Marianas Visitors Authority board member Agida Quitugua.

According to MSA vice president William Giles, the inaugural flight officially kicks off its new flight schedule.

“We took a group from Saipan to Rota and then the inaugural portion of the flight was from Rota to Guam. It was to [launch] our new schedule—a twice-daily flight from Rota to Guam every weekday,” said Giles.

With its newly added flight schedule, MSA aims to provide the Rota community with an affordable option to fly to Guam for necessary appointments and other errands they may need to run without the need to stay overnight, he said.

“This flight will provide the Rota community with regular Rota to Guam service every day and will allow people from Rota a full day on Guam for critical appointments, shopping, and other things that typically they would need a whole day for. Our Rota to Guam flights also start at a reasonable rate of $89,” Giles said.

When asked why it took a while to launch their Rota–Guam route, Giles said MSA was waiting for its new Tecnam aircraft and was training new captains to efficiently fulfill the flight schedules.

“There’s a lot of different reasons why it took a while to launch our Rota–Guam route. Its started off with waiting for our third Tecnam Aircraft. We had initially ordered three but we were waiting for the third one to arrive, which arrived last January. Also, we had to train additional pilots so we now have a full complement of planes and pilots that can run all our flights,” he said.

Currently MSA has five captains and a complementary group of first officers to go with the captains.

Ultimately, MSA hopes that this new addition of flights traveling from Rota to Guam will benefit the Rota community as well as boost tourism for Rota.

“Also, with this new flight, this will allow people from Guam the opportunity to directly visit Rota so we hope this will be a boost in tourism for Rota as well,” he said.

Now that MSA has successfully connected all the islands in the Marianas through affordable, efficient air service, MSA is looking at expanding the number of flights it currently provides.

“We’re really hoping to add more flights to Tinian. We currently have two daily flights from Saipan to Tinian and we hope to add more. Then, once we have progressed, we hope to add daily flights from Guam to Tinian,” Giles said.