Torres hints on another airline to service CNMI

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has hinted on the possibility of another airline servicing the CNMI this year.

Aside from the Philippine Airlines which is coming back in June since halting their services in the ’90s, Torres mentioned in an interview with the media last week that there is another airline that will be “coming in again.”

“It is very critical to diversify our percentage of tourists. This is a great opportunity for tourism, now that we have PAL coming in June. That shows that CNMI is a tourist destination,” Torres said, “When you have PAL taking the risk that means they have done their due diligence that the CNMI is the next destination.”

“And we have other airlines actually, that will be coming in again,” he added.

He said that a ceremonial flight will happen around the third quarter of the year.

“I say there is another airline that will be doing another ceremonial flight end of August or perhaps early September,” Torres said.

Torres declined to give information on the airline or which country it will be originating from, adding that they are still finalizing some details.

“We’re working on that finalization,” Torres said.

Visa waiver

With PAL and the possibility of another airline coming in, Torres said it is important to retain the visa-waiver program.

“We got to maintain that and we’re very fortunate,” Torres said, noting that Hawaii and Guam doesn’t have the same privilege as the CNMI.

“We are very privileged to have that and I continue to work with our Congressman Kilili (Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan) to emphasize how important it is for us to maintain that visa waiver,” he added.

Torres said the waiver for Chinese tourists is “very critical” especially when looking at the percentage of tourists’ arrivals in the CNMI and with the expectation that Chinese tourists will continue to increase and even triple in the next years.

Torres—who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who would later that week call for an end to the U.S. visa waiver program in the wake of terror attacks in Belgium—said that they are working on expanding the waiver program to other nationalities.

“We are cognizant about the importance of Philippines, for example. Now we’re writing letters and trying to communicate with [the Department of] Homeland Security to also look into the visa waiver so there are other countries. As we move forward with tourism, we see which countries are more interested to have that relationship and that will build us so we can ask for visa waiver,” Torres said.