HONG Kong Airlines Chairman Sun “Jeff” Jianfeng, who is also a licensed pilot, will be the captain of HKA’s inaugural flight to Saipan on April 29, Marianas Visitors Authority Christopher Concepcion said on Thursday.
“It’s a big deal to have the HKA chairman captain the flight to Saipan — we are very excited about that,” Concepcion added.
There will be “292 passengers [that] are expected to arrive on Saipan on April 29, 2:30 a.m. Departure from Hong Kong will be on April 28 at 7 a.m.,” he said.
“We’ve arranged for Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang and MVA Deputy Managing Director Judy Torres to be on the inaugural flight. There will be a ceremonial launch in Hong Kong. We want to make sure the Commonwealth is represented. They will be flying out from Saipan to attend the ceremony in Hong Kong, and fly back in on the first flight,” Concepcion said, referring to Apatang and Torres.
He said all indications show that the flights are selling very well.
“The first three weeks, if not the first three months, of the flight are already sold out, which is a very good indication of demand … and it’s only a twice-a-week flight service. We also understand that there are some internal discussions about seeing if there’s a possibility of an increase in frequency. This is the first flight back from Hong Kong, China since Covid — we are very excited to take this first step back into opening up their source market,” he added.
“Historically, the HK market is a strong market. We used to have two airlines servicing this route, HK Express and HKA, and the pre-Covid demand was pretty good,” Concepcion said.
“But we’re looking beyond the Hong Kong market,” he added.
“HKA has a vast route network throughout Asia. They fly to nine different cities in China, four different cities in Japan, they fly to Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines. Saipan is their first foray to the Pacific Islands and Saipan is their first entry to the U.S.,” Concepcion said.
HKA, which made its inaugural flight to Saipan in 2016, suspended the flight service at the end of 2019.
