Asiana Airlines general manager and regional sales manager for Saipan Kwang Joong Kim yesterday told the Variety that a short ceremony will be held at the airport.
“We are expecting Governor Benigno R. Fitial, the Marianas Visitors Authority and other stakeholders of the tourism industry to be with us in welcoming the passengers of the inaugural flight from Osaka,” Kim said. He added that leis will be offered to the guests as part of the island’s traditional welcome.
Kim said the first batch of passengers from Saipan will be boarding the Asiana Airlines flight back to Osaka at 4 a.m. tomorrow.
“We hope to boost the tourism industry in the CNMI with this additional route from Japan,” he said.
At a rough estimate of 80 percent seat occupancy, Kim said the Osaka-Saipan flights could buy over 20,000 airline seats each year, translating into additional visitors to the CNMI.
Using a 177-seater Airbus, Asiana Airlines’ non-stop flight between Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Japan and Saipan will operate on a thrice a week schedule until March 2009.
“This is the winter schedule, and there may be changes for the summer schedule,” he said.
The flights will depart Osaka on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The flights from Saipan to Osaka will depart on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Kim said opening the Osaka-Saipan direct flights has been triggered by the developments at the Laulau Bay.
He added that with Asiana Airlines’ flights from Korea and the upcoming flights from Japan, they will be able to attract more visitors from CNMI’s top source market.
Kim hopes that the Osaka-Saipan flight can support the additional airline seats each week despite the concerns aired about the current state of the Japanese economy. He added that they will also be coming up with package tours by offering promotional rates for visitors from Japan and from Saipan to sell more airline seats.
Asiana Airlines operates two daily flights between Icheon airport in Seoul and Saipan. With this, Kim said they could come up with a combined itinerary for visitors from Japan to visit both Saipan and Korea.
The thrice-a-week flights between Osaka and Saipan will add to the existing 14 weekly flights to Seoul and four weekly flights to Pusan from Kansai Airport. This means that starting tomorrow Asiana Airlines will be flying to the CNMI 21 times a week.
Three prestigious awards
Asiana Airlines bagged three prestigious awards given by Business Traveler Magazine during the awards ceremony at the Sofitel in Los Angeles on Dec. 11, 2008.
For the third consecutive year, Asiana Airlines has been awarded Best Flight Attendants in the World and Best In-Flight Service in the World.
Asiana Airlines was also awarded Best Overall Customer Service-Airlines-Ground/Call center by Business Traveler Magazine for the first time.
A press statement said that “Asiana Airlines has excelled in various categories as a result of its continued focus on providing its customers with innovative and unique services, both in the air and on the ground.”
Asiana Airlines has also been recognized for the services of its in-flight make-up and onboard chef service in addition to the effort the airlines has exerted to upgrade its cabin facilities as well as its day to day operations.
The awards were given following results of a survey conducted by Mediamark Research & Intelligence, a research institute who is a leading provider of consumer research and data since 1979.
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