19 March 2013

New Air Service to Tonga’s Niuas.


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

Photo source : http://www.samoaair.ws/

1 comment:

  1. Not quite a world first.

    Back 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.

    ReplyDelete