Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Perry Tenorio told KSPN 2 that Delta Airlines will stop flying the route on April 5.
“We got word from our japan office that Delta Airlines has decided to suspend the Nagoya-Saipan flight beginning April 5 for approximately 66 days,” he told KSPN 2.
Each Delta flight from Nagoya carries about 180 passengers.
Thus, the 66 days that the airline will suspend its flights on the route means losing close to 12,000 passengers during the period.
“Unfortunately, that’s a corporate decision. I know that our partners in Japan are requesting reconsideration but the result of that has not reached us yet,” said Tenorio.
Japan is the CNMI’s major tourism market. But the Japanese tourist arrival rate continues to decline since the nation’s flag carrier, Japan Airlines, pulled out its 14 weekly flights to Saipan in 2005.
MVA data showed the Japanese arrivals for Dec. 2009 dropped by 24 percent to 15,638 visitors.
