CNMI’s Star Marianas Air targets CPA with new FAA complaint

By Andrew Curran.

EXCLUSIVE: Star Marianas Air, the Saipan-based scheduled passenger airline, has escalated its long-running legal stoush with local airport operator, the Commonwealth Ports Authority (CPA), by lodging a Part 16 Complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The complaint, filed on January 22, 2026, and seen by Aero South Pacific, alleges the CPA has systematically failed to abide by federal statutory and grant assurances since 2009.

Specifically, Star Marianas alleges violations of FAA airport compliance requirements, including that the Commonwealth Ports Authority never established lawful aeronautical rates during an air use agreement period (2009 – September 2021); that the CPA unilaterally imposed a de facto residual (100% cost-recovery) rate structure after the air use agreement expired; and that the CPA conditioned continued airport access upon payment of disputed, non-compliant aeronautical charges that violate federal obligations.

The Commonwealth Ports Authority is an autonomous public corporation. It owns, operates, and controls all commercial airports and seaports in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Star Marianas’ allegations are contained in three counts and cite violations of Grant Assurances 22, 23, 24 and 25; 49 U.S.C. § 47107(a)(1), 47133, and 40116(e).

Critically, the Star Marianas’ case relies on the Commonwealth Ports Authority being a federally obligated airport sponsor that receives significant federal funding under the Airport Improvement Program (49 U.S.C. § 47101 et seq).

As a condition of receiving such grants, the CPA is subject to the FAA grant assurances regime, including Grant Assurances 22 (economic non-discrimination), 23 (exclusive rights), 24 (fee and rental structure), and 25 (airport revenues).

The FAA grant assurances are legally binding obligations that recipients must agree to when accepting federal funds.

Star Marianas is the only scheduled passenger airline based in the Northern Mariana Islands. It and the CPA have history. The airline says it has spent over 15 years trying to sort out its airport fees with the airport operator but says the CPA has refused to “engage in meaningful resolution or comply with federal law and FAA directives.”

Star Marianas says the FAA complaint is a last resort.

CPA debt invalid says Star Marianas Air

As of August 2025, the CPA says Star Marianas owed it USD2,701,957.68 for terminal rental and landing fees at three Northern Mariana's airports served by Star Marianas – Saipan (SPN), Tinian (TNI), and Rota (ROP). This debt refers to CPA services rendered since October 31, 2022. Earlier debts are under litigation and excluded from the tally.

The FAA has previously dismissed a Star Marianas complaint against the CPA. However, the airline now says it has new, material evidence that directly addresses the reasons for dismissing the previous complaint.

“In its 2020 dismissal, the FAA relied on CPA's representations that it maintained a compensatory methodology supported by budgets, documented cost allocation practices, and timely reconciliations,” the new filing reads.

At the heart of Star Marianas case is their argument that the debt is invalid because the CPA did not follow relevant US federal law and the FAA rules.

The airline alleges the CPA failed to establish and maintain a lawful, prospective aeronautical rate-setting framework and, subsequently, imposed and enforced aeronautical charges through non-compliant structural mechanisms.

Instead, the filing says the CPA “relied on retroactive, post-hoc billing demands and enforcement threats, including threats affecting continued airport access and operations.”

In an August 19, 2025, letter to Star Marianas President Shaun Christian, CPA Executive Director Estreuita Ada said the debt “must be paid” if Star Marianas is to “continue to operate at CPA's airports.”

Star Marianas says FAA grant assurances rules not abided by

US federal law does not permit an airport operator in receipt of federal funds to charge aeronautical fees without lawful, prospective rates and, under controlling FAA policy, aeronautical rates must be established prospectively based on reasonable estimates supported by a disclosed rate base.

Annual budgets disclose airport costs and therefore, reasonable estimates of what airport users should pay, but until the 2021 fiscal year, the CPA hadn’t prepared an annual budget since the 2009 fiscal year.

“Where no prospective budgets or lawful rate base exist, lawful aeronautical rates cannot be said to have been established for that period,” the Star Marianas filing argues.

Between 2009 and 2021, Star Marianas’ operations at the CPA’s airports were ostensibly governed by an airline use agreement. But the airline now says that agreement was invalid because the CPA didn’t abide by its terms and conditions, which included providing annual budgets to support its airport fees and charges.

In any case, the airline use agreement “unilaterally” ended in 2021 and according to Star Marianas, the CPA began imposing a 100% recovery fee regime, requiring airlines to backstop 100% of airport costs and reserving open-ended authority for the Commonwealth Ports Authority to impose additional deficit-recovery charges after audited actuals become available.

This post airline use agreement era constitutes the second part of Star Marianas’ complaint. FAA policy does allow residual or hybrid (residual-like) collection methodologies, but only in agreement with airport users and only in “compliance with the requirements governing prospectivity, allocability and cost causation, transparency, and meaningful user review.”

“(The) CPA's post-air use agreement structure violates these requirements by substituting unilateral "deemed agreement" and audit triggered deficit recovery for lawful agreement-based rate-setting,” the filing states.

New evidence, says Star Marianas Air

Unlike the previous, unsuccessful complaint, Star Marianas says it now has sworn admissions from CPA officials admitting the agency failed to prepare budgets and related airport rate setting documentation.

Regarding the CPA’s representations to the FAA in 2020, “(The) CPA's subsequent sworn admissions now establish that those assumptions were materially incorrect,” the filing notes.

The filing further adds that the new sworn admissions “compel reconsideration of whether lawful, prospective aeronautical rates ever came into existence during the air use agreement period and whether CPA's post-air use agreement regime complies with FAA policy and grant assurance obligations.”

Star Marianas wants the FAA to again investigate the Commonwealth Ports Authority and issue a determination of non-compliance with US federal law and FAA Grant Assurances.

The airline wants orders forcing the CPA “to cease and desist from enforcing, collecting, or threatening enforcement of aeronautical charges assessed under the noncompliant air use agreement and post-air use agreement methodologies, including any retroactive deficit-recovery demands tied to audited actuals for periods in which lawful prospective rates were not established.”

Star Marianas further wants a refund or credit for any amount previously “unlawfully” collected and the CPA forced to establish and implement a compliant, prospective, non-residual rate-setting methodology consistent with federal law and FAA policy.

The Commonwealth Ports Authority is required to file an answer to the complaint within 20 days of the date of service (January 22) or, alternatively, file a motion to dismiss.

You can read the Star Marianas’ filing here.

Photo: Star Marianas Air.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com