Another airline for the South Pacific
p. 132 · Read in the full issue
In a reversal of its earlier decision to nominate Eastern and Con tinental Airlines to fly the South Pacific, the US Government in July nominated the US’s second-biggest carrier, American Airlines, to fly the South Pacific.
President Nixon’s American Airlines decision surprised most, and it will provoke controversy because there are already too many operators on the Pacific run.
American is expected to operate out of major eastern US cities, via Hawaii and American Samoa, and possibly Fiji, to Sydney and Auckland, but as yet no date has been set for its first Pacific flight.
The American Airlines announcement was followed by news that Ansett Airlines is applying for a licence to operate a fortnightly passenger service through Port Moresby, Madang or Lae and Manus Island to Guam.
Ansett’s move, strongly opposed by Australia’s government-owned international airline, Qantas, would make it an international airline overnight. Nobody believes Ansett has much chance of going to Guam.
The others news in July was a broad hint by the Islands biggest regional operator, Fiji Airways, that it would shortly rename itself to better reflect its other interests besides Fiji. (This was predicted in PIM in December, 1968, p. 49). Suggestions for a new name include Pacific Islands Airways and South Pacific Airways.