Originally Posted by hfly

Guam and Saipan are not intra-Asian flights they are essentially flights to the United States (well at least a territory) While Palau is an independent country. It is essentially the US, as most of its budget comes from the US, the US maintains whatever rights is wants there (such as opening and closing bases when and if it wants). Something like 5% of the Palau population is serving in the US military at any one time, and over 30% has cumulatively, oh yeah, its citizens benefit from most US Federal Programs.

In any case the mainstays of all these economies is tourism, and at many times of the year DL could run another half dozen flights a day from multiple Japanese cities to Guam and make money (much as UA does), and that is before accounting for the bases. Same for Saipan. Not so for ROR, but then ROR has little frequency.