Guam Visitors Bureau asks Legislature for $11.1 million in temporary airline incentives to preserve routes

Regine Biscolli, president of the Guam Visitors Bureau, told the Guam Legislature’s Committee of the Whole that the bureau is requesting a supplemental $11,100,000 to fund temporary, performance-based airline incentives to help restore air service and visitor arrivals.

Biscolli said the next 18 months are critical because global aircraft shortages, delayed deliveries and competition from other destinations are constraining available seat capacity. “Incentives are not handouts. They are performance based agreements tied to seat capacity, tied to load factor and route duration,” she told senators, and said incentives already helped raise monthly seat capacity from Korea from about 39,000 in June to roughly 60,000 in August.

The bureau cited preliminary Oxford Economics figures showing roughly $1.158 billion in direct traveler demand, $1.439 billion in total economic impact, about 13,975 jobs supported and $374 million in taxes (preliminary 2024 estimates). GVB told the committee it expects the $11.1 million…