LOCAL airports are still open because of American Rescue Plan Act funds, Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chairwoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds said.
The spreadsheet of CPA’s fiscal year 2023 spending plan, approved by the board on Aug. 25, indicated a deficit of $7.3 million. But this will be covered by CPA’s remaining ARPA funds.
The budget spreadsheet shows that the projected revenue of CPA’s airports in FY 2023 is $6.75 million, but the total operating and personnel costs will be $14 million. For personnel, CPA plans to spend $6.26 million.
CPA operates the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport, the Benjamin Taisacan Manglona International Airport on Rota and the Tinian airport, as well as all CNMI seaports.
The spending plan indicates that since FY 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Commonwealth and all but shut down its only industry, tourism, CPA’s airport income has plummeted.
In FY 2020, CPA’s airport income was negative $5.25 million. In FY 2021, the deficit reached $9.8 million and in the current fiscal year, it is $9.9 million.
In an interview, King-Hinds said although the airports’ projected revenue for FY 2023 is larger than the FY 2022 projection of $3.9 million, “we are still operating [at] a loss and are being subsidized by ARPA funds.”
She said CPA’s ARPA funds for airport operations are “around $8.9 million [and CPA] will basically exhaust those funds.”
She said this means that for the next fiscal year, “there will be no federal safety net and CPA will have to generate those revenues to cover all its personnel and operational expenses.”
“This is why it’s so critical that we must focus on making the necessary investments in our tourism industry. CPA relies on those aviation fees to pay the bills,” she added.
For the seaports, CPA projects $7.2 million in revenue and expects to spend $3.2 million on operations and personnel in FY 2023, and pay $3 million for debt service.
