Jeju Air officials told Gov. Arnold Palacios today the airline will be expanding flight service to Saipan, according to a news release from the CNMI governor’s office.
“We are thankful to Jeju Air for expanding its service to Saipan to include the Busan to Saipan route,” said Governor Palacios. “We will continue to partner with Jeju Air and other airline partners to continue to grow and expand the Korea tourism market.”
To expand its current service to Saipan, Jeju Air has announced that it is adding a new, direct passenger air service between Busan, South Korea, and Saipan.
Jeju Air’s CEO E-Bae Kim made the announcement during a meeting with Mr. Palacios, who is in Seoul this week with MVA Acting Chairperson Gloria Cavanagh and MVA Managing Director Chris Concepcion.
“The Northern Mariana Islands is one of the top destination markets for Koreans, and this additional route will help meet the growing demand,” said CEO Kim. “We are looking at other ways we can increase seats and flight service to the CNMI and we thank Governor Palacios for his friendship and partnership.”
The governor’s office provided the following information:
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The new route will begin on July 19, 2023, and is already on sale on the Jeju Air website.
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The route will be evaluated to determine whether it will be sustained for a longer period.
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The airline already flies two flights per day every day between Saipan and Seoul.
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Busan, South Korea’s second most populous city after Seoul, is a metropolitan city located at the southeast tip of the Korean peninsula. It is a large port city known for its beaches, mountains, and temples.
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Further, Jeju Air currently provides the highest seat supply from Korea to CNMI
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The airline also announced the addition of a third daily flight that will be in service for a one-month period. June 29 to July 19
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Governor Arnold Palacios and MVA leaders are in Seoul, Korea this week to meet with government and airline and tour partners as part of efforts to expand the tourism market.
5 Comments
elkapitan
06/10/2023 at 8:59 AM
What is not being mentioned in this article is that the added [flight] will begin June 29 UNTIL July 19th.
This is a test flight to “test the waters” and see if another added regular flight would be profitable.
Why nothing is also mentioned on just what percentage of seats are filled on present flights?
From much earlier reports, this was also planned, there does not seem to be much reason for the Gov. an the others to personally take this junket, especially due to the financial situation of the NMI.
Also from the beginning of this Gov. taking office he put a moratorium on all unnecessary Govt. travel.
Seems that this Gov. and others have been doing much off island travels. It would be interesting to know just how many days this Gov. has accumulated off island since he took office.
Dame Edith Shitwell
06/11/2023 at 2:09 AM
He “secured” some flights? Is this like me “securing” Shirley’s fried rice for dinner, then proceeding to Kagman to “secure” rough trade for dessert? In a market economy, you don’t “secure” anything. You buy it.
The three possibilities are that Palacios paid a subsidy (bought the flights), or he alerted the airline to a business opportunity of which their professional strategists and AI models were not aware, or that the airline made a business decision independently of Palacios, but as a courtesy made the announcement at the time of his visit. Which was it? Most likely the third. Maybe the first. Very unlikely the second (and if Arnold did beat the airline’s professional forecasters and AI models, I want to hire him for my kelaguen factory!). Let’s not fall into Pyongyang Daily or Fox News territory and credit our dear leader for making the sun rise. We had enough of that with Rafet and Donnie.
Relatedly, let’s not fall into the ludicrous but very common (in the CNMI) belief that “seats” determine a tourism destination’s flow of tourists. That’s true in a CNMI-style economy where resources are allocated based on relationships and bribes, but again, not in a market economy where tourism demand brings the “seats,” and not the other way around.
Russ Mason
06/12/2023 at 1:58 PM
The Korean tourists are certainly welcome, but they don’t have the spending power of the Chinese. For Palacios to not court Chinese tourism is foolish. They have money.
elkapitan
06/14/2023 at 7:41 PM
Hi Russ,
I personally disagree in that average Chinese tourists have the spending power. Since the visa waiver was opened, the bulk of Chinese tourist were all low income, presold tours. Everything was prepaid, ground tours, dining, accomodations etc. The usual stay was only a few days. They do not gamble and spend little money.
The business that are involved with the Chinese tour agencies do not pay local taxes as all was prepaid in China.
The Chinese tourist from the past, paid the $130 for multiple entry US tourist visa stayed longer and did spend more money. But did not actually “blend” with the “lower class” tours. Much then went to Guam and Hawaii.
This Chinese Visa waiver was to accomodate IPI in attempts to have high rollers mix with cheap flights and accomodate gambling operators with high rollers that gambled mostly on credit, which has shown to be non collectable in China.
This also seemed to be IPI cover (even as these junkets tourists did not gamble) was to make it look like IPI had much gambling customers clientel to covering up their “alleged” money laundering operations where they reported record $multi billions of gambling take, ( exceeded around the world’s noted gaming areas) And also used to cover the local corruption in the NMI as so many noted people allegedly had their hands into..
Except for the very wide spread corruption, as there was allegedly on Saipan, this pre-booked Chinese tourist travel, (prior to the visa waiver) was almost the same with Tinian Dynasty. Tourist did not gamble, they arrived on Saipan, mixed with a few “high rollers” all were loaded onto the ferries to Tinian, booked into the Dynasty Hotel, wined and dined, next day (except for the high rollers) were given a Tinian island ground tour, transported back to Saipan, wined and dined, sent on a ground tour around Saipan and then on a return flight home. incoming flight, was a repeat.
Russ Mason
06/18/2023 at 9:09 AM
Hi Cap,
My stepson, Mike, worked for Chanel at DFS. A Chinese woman paid $22k cash! for a handbag.
I don’t think any Korean woman could do that.