SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero on Thursday sent U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a letter expressing support for the CNMI’s exemption from a federal order that limits the number of round-trip flights between the U.S. and China.
In August 2023, a USDOT order limited to 24 the number of weekly round-trip passenger flights between the U.S. and China effective Oct. 29, 2023.
The order, according to U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, does not affect charter flights from China to the CNMI, and applies only to scheduled flight services.
In her letter to Buttigieg last week, the Senate president is asking for the reinstatement of Annex VI of the U.S.-China bilateral agreement, which exempts the CNMI from flight frequency limitations between the U.S. and China.
Deleon Guerrero said for the CNMI, the direct economic impact of losing the Chinese tourism market based on 2019 figures is approximately $126.4 million.
Unlike the U.S. states and its other territories, the CNMI continues to be in a deep recession and may not recover until its only industry, tourism, fully resumes, which requires Chinese visitors at this time, Deleon Guerrero said.
With no U.S. airline providing passenger flight services between China and the CNMI, and no other industry present to support employment, commercial activity and government revenues, the Senate president said, “the imminent collapse of the [local] tourism industry will have repercussions for the future of the CNMI that will last for years.”
