Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chair Ramon Tebuteb, left, speaks during a special meeting on Wednesday in the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting classroom of the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport.
THE Commonwealth Ports Authority board of directors, in a special meeting on Wednesday, unanimously voted to adopt CPA Resolution 2024-5, re-implementing the rates that were in place at Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport prior to Oct. 1, 2023.
On Oct. 30, 2024, a majority of the board voted to adopt a revised fiscal year 2025 budget for CPA based on projected landing fees and terminal rental rates. This decision increased the terminal rental rate from $34.92 to $41.07 and the landing fee from $15.25 to $19.73. For the commuter terminals that serve Rota and Tinian passengers, the board raised the terminal rate to $16.43 from $13.97 and the landing fee to $11.84 from $9.15.
However, the resolution that the board adopted on Wednesday states that “CPA management met with representatives from its incumbent aircraft operators to present and discuss the projected 2025 landing fees and terminal rental rates, wherein incumbent aircraft operators raised concerns regarding the new rates.”
The resolution states that “the CPA Board of Directors finds it in the best interest of the CPA to reimplement the rates that were in place prior to Oct. 1, 2023, in order to retain its incumbent aircraft operators and to attract new aircraft operators.”
The resolution also acknowledged that on June 18, 2024, the CPA board, under the leadership of then-Chair Jose Ayuyu, “resolved to authorize the CPA to enter into a written agreement with aircraft operators, on a non-discriminatory basis, to re-implement the rates that were in place prior to Oct. 1, 2023, thereafter known as the temporary landing fee and terminal rate reduction program, as a temporary measure while a special committee of the board constructed an airline incentive program.”
Prior to Oct. 1, 2023, the terminal fee at Saipan international airport was $19.49 and the landing fee was $8.01. The previous CPA board increased these fees on Oct. 1, 2023, following the advice of Ricondo & Associates that the debt service ratio requirement of 1.25 would not be met unless additional revenue was generated, or expenditures were reduced.
In June 2024, Ayuyu and the rest of the board unanimously voted to authorize an expenditure of the Tinian airport divert funds in the amount of $8 million to fund the redemption of the 1998 revenue bond with Bank of Guam. Ten days later, CPA informed the bank that CPA was paying off its 26-year-old debt.
