Rep. John Paul Sablan speaks during a bicameral conference committee meeting in the House chamber on Tuesday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
AFTER hearing from Commonwealth Ports Authority officials about T’Way Air’s cancelation of flights and Jeju Air’s reduction in air services, the House Ways and Means chairman, Rep. John Paul P. Sablan, said Gov. Arnold I. Palacios must submit a realistic budget revision.
The governor submitted a $179.7 million spending measure on April 1, 2025, but is allowed by law to submit a revised budget on July 1, 2025.
During a bicameral conference committee meeting to address House Bill 24-17, which would remove the restriction of the use of funds between seaports and airports, CPA Board Chairman Ramon A. Tebuteb and acting comptroller Zack Diaz informed lawmakers that T’Way Air was canceling its daily flights to Saipan for a couple of months starting in June.
The CPA officials also told the joint committee about Jeju Air’s decision to reduce its daily flights from two to one.
In an interview after the meeting, Sablan said “these are things that we need to factor in our decision for any budget deliberation.”
The governor’s authority to revise the budget, he said, is very important because, whatever revenue projection the administration is seeing, “we need to make sure that it’s a realistic projection.”
He said the administration must also acknowledge that Hong Kong Airlines’ twice a week flights are unlikely to return anytime soon. The flights have been suspended because
U.S. Customs & Border Protection has not been processing the EVS-TAP program for Chinese tourists.
“It is important for the executive branch to factor the potential decrease in revenue as a result of the suspension of flights,” Sablan added.
“When there is developing information about the canceling of flights, I’m hoping that the administration will turn in a revised budget that reflects the decrease in revenues as a result of these cancelations and reduction of flights,” he reiterated.
The CNMI’s tourism arrivals and hotel occupancy rates remain way below their pre-pandemic levels.
“The economy of the Commonwealth is reaching critical mass, as we’ve experienced…recent mass layoffs and business closures,” the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands said earlier this month.
