By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

THE U.S. Department of Transportation has informed the CNMI that it has tentatively decided to grant, in part, the islands’ request for an open-skies policy permitting foreign air carriers to provide expanded service at the commonwealth’s international airports.
The department said it will accord the CNMI treatment comparable to that previously accorded Alaska, Hawaii and Guam.
“We tentatively find that it is consistent with the public interest to grant exemption authority to foreign air carriers which currently hold, or which may subsequently receive, effective department authority to engage in scheduled foreign air transportation of cargo (1) to conduct expanded cargo transfer operations at CNMI airports and (2) to serve the CNMI, carrying passengers and/or cargo, and to coterminalize the CNMI with other U.S. points for which they hold our authority,” the department stated,.
It is “also proposing to invite eligible foreign carriers to apply for authority to serve new U.S. points on an extrabilateral basis, carrying passengers and/or cargo, so long as these flights also serve the CNMI and are subject to the standard that there must be a procompetitive agreement with the applicant’s homeland country and that interested parties will be allowed to raise overriding public interest reasons for denying the requested authority.”
However, the department said it is not proposing to grant the CNMI’s request as it relates to allowing foreign carriers from Australia, China, and Japan, or from the United Kingdom, to be eligible for the extrabilateral authority.
It also disallowed granting foreign carriers broad authority to conduct charter operations to the CNMI beyond what is currently allowed under the charter rules.
The department, moreover, disallowed granting foreign carriers authority to provide service beyond the CNMI or from points in third countries with local traffic rights.
“We find that the proposed actions are consistent with the public interest, as they will provide important benefits to the CNMI, its economy, and the traveling and shipping public,” the transportation department stated.
The exemption is effective for two years.
According to the department, its decision is a result of findings that the CNMI has “demonstrated that its geographic and economic situation warrants a grant of the same type of relief…earlier granted to Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.”
“We recognize that air service is vitally important to the CNMI, and that the CNMI, like Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam, is geographically isolated and heavily dependent on air transportation as a vital element of its economy. In its request for relief, the CNMI has provided specific evidence of the impact that its economy has suffered because of the declines in its garment industry, and cutbacks in some air services,” the department stated.
It added, “The CNMI has succeeded in demonstrating that a public interest basis exists for the type of relief we propose to confer, and we view the public interest basis as persuasive.”