Call For CNMI Leaders To Fight Back On High Airfares
, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent
Former Northern Mariana Islands lawmaker Edwin K. Propst taken to social media to urge leaders to "go to war" with United Airlines over what he claims are exorbitant airfares between Saipan and Guam.
The call to action comes amid renewed efforts to reinstate the Essential Air Service program in the CNMI and push for a cabotage exemption.
"Attention all leaders of the Marianas in the public and private sector, it is time to go to war with this airline," Propst wrote.
The former representative, who now works at the CNMI broadband policy and development office, shared his frustration after attempting to book a four-day roundtrip ticket from Guam to Saipan in June - to find the lowest available fare was US$767.
"For a 25-minute flight?!
"They have just made record-breaking profits and instead of rewarding their customers, they increase their prices."
Propst called the airfares "devastating" to the local economy and tourism.
The CNMI is currently seeking exemption from federal cabotage restrictions, which bar foreign airlines from operating domestic routes between US territories such as Guam and the CNMI.
Governor Arnold Palacios mentioned this effort during his State of the Commonwealth Address, saying he had "actively advocated for potential cabotage waiver [and] essential air services" in recent talks with federal agencies and congressional leaders.
Palacios emphasized the importance of improved regional connectivity to support the CNMI's tourism-dependent economy.
Senate public utilities, transportation and communications committee chair, Senator Jude Hofschneider called Propst's complaints a "sad reality of economic times," adding that United's pricing is "likely a business decision by the air carrier".
Still, Hofschneider said the moment calls for greater support of Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds' bill introduced in April to requalify CNMI airports for the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. If passed, the measure would allow federal subsidies to fund daily round-trip flights even if commercial carriers withdraw service.
A quote from CWM Travel International showed a Saipan-Guam roundtrip departing 8 June 8 and returning 12 June costing $420 - significantly cheaper than Propst's booking but still high for an inter-island flight.
The EAS program, created in 1978 and stripped from CNMI eligibility in 2012, was intended to preserve air access for small US communities.
King-Hinds' bill seeks to restore eligibility to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota by placing CNMI alongside Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico in exemption status.
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'The NZDF routinely engages partners in joint efforts to promote peace and security, many of which are not announced or publicised,' Collins told Parliament in response to a question from the Greens. 'Project Overmatch is part of the US Combined Joint Command and Control strategy,' she added. 'The NZDF signed a Project Overmatch programme arrangement to explore ways in which our maritime forces can interoperate with partner nations, connect securely despite the actions of adversaries, and improve the survivability and lethality of our platforms.' However, the minister [ttps:// also said] she had received no aides-mémoire, briefings, memos, notes, reports or any other advice about Overmatch. The NZDF joined Overmatch a few weeks before its $12 billion defence capability plan was unveiled by Collins. NZ resisting the 'deep slide' – govt The government recently restated its anti-nuclear credentials made world-famous by former Prime Minister David Lange's riposte in an Oxford Union debate in 1987: 'I can smell the uranium on your breath.' In a speech in early 2024, Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Todd McClay warned the world was in a 'deep slide' over nuclear weapons. 'Investments to modernise arsenals and, in some concerning cases, increase arsenals, is likely to lead to the further entrenchment of nuclear weapons for decades to come,' McClay told a disarmament conference. 'And mistrust has grown. 'And in the absence of any discernible progress to disarm, the seeming incentive persists for the 'have-nots' to join the 'haves' and acquire these terrible weapons.' McClay reiterated the country's longstanding calls for full implementation of the treaties on non-proliferation and on prohibition of nuclear weapons. McClay was not available for an interview for this story. 'Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture' Both CJADC2 and NC3 depend on what happens in space, and Hegseth has said space would become the most important battle domain. New satellites to warn against nuclear attack are scheduled to be launched later this year, a step towards replacing a 14-year-old system called SBIRS, a space-based infrared system. Hundreds of small satellites in two layers are also going up to form the 'backbone' of CJADC2, US Space Force said. This 'Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture' (PWSA) is providing big business for several large defence contractors. 'Proliferation' has become the Pentagon buzzword, a strategy of spreading out technology, especially in space, to make it much harder for an enemy to register a knockout blow. Another recent strategy is to contract commercial space companies to help it achieve 'responsive' launch – fast turnaround launches in case satellites do get knocked out. The NZDF has a tiny space footprint but is aiming to make it bigger, with American help. Its first space payloads – which went up this year and last year – are within the Five Eyes newly 'federated space system' and under a bigger project by the US Navy to achieve laser-fast satellite communications Collins denied the experiments had anything to do with the Project Overmatch: 'The Tui and Korimako payloads are for research purposes only and have no direct utility for military operations,' she said. The NZDF had said earlier: 'These experiments will generate NZDF knowledge to drive future military space operations.' 'Force multipliers for strengthening deterrence' The integration and overlap of conventional and nuclear command-control-and-communications systems is going ahead, official records from within the US show. The impetus to do more faster is growing. 'US nuclear planners… need to plan for the possibility of a combined Sino-Russian nuclear attack,' Edelman said this month. His opinion piece on the website Foreign Policy was headlined 'America's latest problem: A three-way nuclear race'. 'The recent joint Chinese-Russian strategic bomber patrols near Alaska demonstrate that this is not just a theoretical concern,' he wrote. While America's defence doctrine does not rule out a first strike, its stress has always been on deterrence. The Pentagon and lawmakers are agreed their old nuclear systems do not provide the best deterrent, and must be modernised. They have also looked at command-and-control on all fronts, arrived at the same conclusion and came up with a joined-up approach – joined-up tech, with joined-up allies and partners. A subsection of a 2024 Pentagon report, headlined 'Optimising innovation cooperation with allies and partners', warned the US was not adequately integrating key allies and partners, and it recommended that the 'DoD should leverage these strengths through new and innovative mechanisms of cooperation'. The Nuclear Posture Review in 2022, in a section on the Indo-Pacific, stated: 'We view the expertise, capabilities, and resources of our allies and partners as 'force multipliers' for strengthening deterrence.'
