Following the withdrawal of
Chathams Pacific Air Samoa is set to provide an air service to Tonga’s Niuas
using its Britten Norman Islander aircraft.
The company plans to operate a
Friday service from Samoa’s Falelolo International Airport to the northern Tongan
island of Niuatoputapu before continuing on Vava’u. Once a fortnight the
aircraft will then do a return Vava’u-Niuafo’ou service before returning to
Samoa via Niuatoputapu in the afternoon. These services are being carried out under
an agreement with the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga. This is in support of
the new carrier Real Tonga.
Air Samoa has a fleet of two
Britten Norman Islanders, 5W-CSJ and 5W-JUN as well as one Cessna 172P, 5W-RJO.
The company is unusual in that it has introduced a world first - 'Pay only for
what you weigh'! The company website says, “We at Samoa Air are keeping
airfares fair, by charging our passengers only for what they weigh.”
In addition to the new service
the company also operates five weekly international services to Pago Pago in American
Samoa from both Fagali’i (which is in Apia – as opposed to Faleolo
International Airport which is 40 kms from Apia) and Maota on the island of
Savai’i. The company also operates up to five daily flights between the islands
of Upolo and Savai’i from Faleolo to Maota/Asau on an air taxi basis.
For more on the expansion of
Samoa Air’s services see :
http://www.travelmemo.co.nz/memos/20130319.pdf
http://www.travelmemo.co.nz/memos/20130319.pdf
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| Photo source : http://www.samoaair.ws/ |
Not quite a world first.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1930s/40s the South American airline TACA (run by Kiwi Lowell Yerex) weighed each passenger plus the seat they were going to sit in, and charged a fare by weight.