Embedded Files
04/17/25 - Micronesian Air Connection Services will have its maiden flight this Monday, April 21, with the flight departing Saipan at 9 am en route to Rota with the return flight set at 10:30 am, according to the CNMI’s inter-island carrier’s president and CEO John J. Stewart.
“This flight is basically a soft opening. We've got some dignitaries coming on board with us, some media. and so forth. The first flight is going to be sort of already booked out as it is, but we're starting 21st of January. That's a Monday, so we're doing our flights and are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday,” he said during an informal press conference Wednesday, April 16, at the MACS’ hangar in Naftan.
Stewart asked for patience from customers in the CNMI as they’re literally launching their passenger service off the ground with the Saipan-Rota route first followed by the Saipan-Tinian route in the near future.
“We're doing small steps, making sure we get it right the first time and then build from there. It's going to take a bit of time, but we've been here since 1995, so you can't get rid of us that quickly.”
Stewart and his wife Paula, through J&P Holdings, also own Micronesian Air Cargo Services, Skydive Saipan, and Skydive Guam.
He said the main reason why they’ve launched MACS is that the islands are in desperate need of an alternative inter-island carrier.
“The answer is the need. We see a need for it here and I guess we're seeing an opportunity as well. And so that's where we're working from...We started in 1995 with skydiving and then we took on the cargo service route in 2013 and we have the contract with the United States Postal Service since then and we've been running cargo as well. So, we're sort of well entrenched in the area. We know the area well.”
Stewart also revealed that, for now, MACS’ plan to extend their passenger service to neighboring Guam is in hold after they lost the bid for hangar space at the Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport. Earlier reports had MACS eyeing to service Guam with bigger aircraft.
“Once we get this running smoothly and we're getting well serviced, we'll put on a 19-seater, but we had a problem in servicing that with, we never got a hangar in Guam. We were bidding for a hangar and we never got that. So that's probably going to slow things down quite a bit for us in the Guam league.”
He added, “This new aircraft’s date of manufacture is January 2025. That's when it came out of the factory and so you know it's brand new. It also has air conditioning and it's got a very reliable engine. It's got charging jacks within the airplane, USB, USB-C, that type of thing. It's very modern. Like, I mean, the cockpit, once you walk through the airplane, you'll see it's a total glass cockpit. It's the state-of-the-art and [has] latest avionics that you can possibly get.”
MACS’ fare for the Saipan-Rota route is $139 one way and $278 for round trip. For more information, go to their website at https://www.flymacs.com/.
Story by Mark Rabago
Report abuse