Originally Posted by
BoyFromSouth
Ferd149,
For what it's worth, I was in Saipan 11 days ago and had a talk with the station manager. He told us that in May we would increase to two flights a day from NRT. Last month it was one turn a day from NRT and KIX. He said the tourism is really down, partly due to the damage of hotels from last years storm. ??? I did not think they were that bad but he said they were.
He did make the comment that the Russian traffic was starting to die off as well. I guess there is some type of waver on the visa requirements to visit Guam or Saipan.
Hopefully things will pick up.
BFS
Originally Posted by
Going2Baja
Saipan runway had been under construction for a bit, I heard that had a little to do w/ it (securing the a/c overnight.) Still nothing in the bid for April. As for seniority....things are changing. April has A LOT of long Asia trips, I'm guessing they'll go all the way to the bottom of line holders.
Baja.
Thanks guys,
Yeah I actually held a nice Asia trip as a shadow bid when there were extra trips above the usual suspects who bid them. So, I've got my fingers crossed for April.
As the old heads around here will remember, Saipan was my usual hangout before I became a Busboy and am looking forward to getting back. I did see all the typhoon damage from news footage after it hit and Beach Road looked like it got hit hard, so I'm sure Garapan and it's hotels took a nasty hit.
While Saipan is much more 3rd world than Guam I preferred it, Guam is too commercial and probably why the Saipan tourist are drying up. As a point of comparison, at one time there was evening service from NRT, NGO and KIX.....PLUS a beach whale (all coach seating main deck) that did a turn out of NRT during the daytime hours.
Ferd