First, it is not primarily for cargo services. Second, it is not intended to be owned only by a few.
Arctic Circle president Tony Pellegrino in an interview last week said before such misconceptions are dignified he would like to reiterate that the company goes beyond transporting food products off island.
“Arctic is not a cargo business. The aircraft is just a vehicle to boost the island’s agriculture industry,” Pellegrino said.
Formed last March 23, Arctic Circle has a mission to “fill a niche in the lack of affordable and available cargo transportation between Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam; to achieve high and profitable load factors by identifying and serving producers and buyers un-served, under-served and poorly served and where significant unmet demand exists; and to expand service on a regional bases and beyond.”
By utilizing cost-efficient airplanes, reducing labor costs by not servicing passengers and creating an integrated logistical and sales organization between producers and buyers, the company, according to its mission statement, “shall achieve its objectives.”
“We’ve got a job to do and we do it every day for you,” is the company’s motto.
Pellegrino said Arctic Circle is creating a bigger market for local produce so farmers here can have more reasons to go an extra mile in tilling their lands.
Aside from transporting agriculture products within the Marianas, Arctic Circle also aims at cutting the best deals between potential buyers and local farmers.
If somebody from Guam, for example, is looking for 500 pounds of tomato in a given period of time, the company will send the message to CNMI farmers.
Arctic Circle, Pellegrino said, will make it possible to sell vegetables even before they are grown. This, he added, will give farmers all the motivation, the enthusiasm and energy that they need in able to meet their commitment.
Right now, he said, most farmers on island harvest their crops without the guarantee that all of them will be sold. Local farmers are competing for a continuously shrinking market here, while elsewhere dealers are importing millions of dollars worth of fresh produce that can hardly be described as “fresh” due to the long trip.
Pellegrino said he learned that dealers on Guam ship a total of $4.4 million worth of fresh fruits and vegetables from the U.S in a month. Meat dealers there also bring in $880,000 worth of pork from the states each month.
Importers have the technology to maintain freshness but nothing can compare to fresh food products coming from islands close to Guam: Saipan, Tinian and Rota, Pellegrino said.
Fruits and vegetables grown in the CNMI, he added, “are just as good as others in the world.”
He said what hinders these quality and highly saleable farm products is the astronomical shipping cost.
One airline whose cargo service here has a limited flight schedule to Guam charges 66 cents for every pound of produce. That is more than half the price a farmer wishes to sell a pound of vegetable.
Another airline charges $1.02 per pound plus “other charges.”
As soon as Arctic Circle launches its twin engine aircraft with a cargo capacity of 1,700 to 2,000 pounds, CNMI farmers will have the opportunity to transport their produce everyday for inbound and outbound cargo at 40 percent below the current rates, Pellegrino said.
NMI project
Although the management is currently composed of Pellegrino, Jim Parrish, Norman Wiswell, Paul Zak, Herman R. Guerrero and a number of local farmers, Arctic Circle is not only their project, but the CNMI’s, Pellegrino said.
Like agriculturist Isidoro T. Cabrera, any farmer and member of the community can buy a share, Pellegrino said.
“This is going to be a CNMI-wide project so the entire community can take pride in its success,” he said.
Objectives
Arctic Circle will establish and operate a new locally owned cargo airline aiming specifically at linking Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam.
It will provide service and absorb unmet demand in un-served and under-served routes on which demand currently exists or can be developed further.
It will implement an organizational and marketing strategy that will achieve a cargo load factor of 60 to 70 percent.
It targets over $175,000 revenue per quarter within the first six months of flight operations, then, $325,000 per quarter by the end of the first year.
The airline seeks to achieve a net operating profit and steady growth enabling rational expansion of the airline thereafter.
It will gear operations and present a professional, serious, growth-oriented image of the outset that will set the state for reasoned, planned expansion, mirroring growth rates projected for the first year of operations.
It will also serve as “an element critical to achieving these objectives, so it can identify key alliances, cooperation and partnerships within other larger more established cargo airlines.”
