"Air Mike" Makes It

“Congratulations to each and every one of you. This is the great day you’ve all worked so hard to make come true. Today the Civil Aero nautics Board released its final de cision in the Pacific Islands Local Service Case. Air Micronesia and Continental Airlines have been awarded certificate authority . . . representing a tremendous victory against what at times appeared to be insurmountable odds. This day is a most memorable one for all of us.”

So said a staff memo from Dominic P. Renda, president of Air Micro nesia Inc., in August. The staff were entitled to regard the news as memor able, because for most of them it meant they would continue to work.

Air Micronesia, which since 1968 has been linking the US with the far flung islands of the US-held Trust Territory of Micronesia on a tem porary licence, had finally won per mission to stay permanently.

In getting this official blessing it had won an important victory over Pan American Airways, which last year had managed to convince a majority of the CAB that PanAm ought not to be faced with more Islands competition, things being as tough as they were, and that it should have the Micronesian route.

The board voted to give the route to PanAm, but President Nixon, who has to approve all international route awards, told the CAB to reconsider.

The August announcement resulted.

Air Micronesia, which is owned 31 per cent, by Continental Airlines of the US mainland, 20 per cent, by Hawaii’s Aloha Airlines and 49 per cent, by the local United Micronesian Development Association of Saipan, currently operates a Boeing 727 jet between Hawaii and Guam, via the various Micronesian islands, and a DC6 on some inter-island hops.

Under general manager Phil Yates, based in Saipan, the airline has built up such a good service record since 1968 that the CAB examiner, in making his recommendation, was able to report that “the operations of Air Micronesia/Continental have met with near universal approval within the Trust Territory, even from individual legislators who may lean towards Pan American.

There is still pioneering spirit and enthusiasm in Air Micronesia. Its pilots appear to enjoy getting the single jet away from the crowded American domestic airways and into clear blue skies, and landing with precision on atoll airstrips that appear much too short to take a large plane.

The sceptics said it couldn’t be done with a 727, but Micronesia’s jet ser vice has reduced distances and im proved communications in a fashion not seen in any other single island territory, on either side of the equator. The service has been com fortable and reliable, and thousands

of Micronesians who had hardly seen a plane have taken to the air.

Micronesia’s new route certification also gives it the right for the next five years to the Saipan-Okinawa service, which will be of growing importance because of the Japanese tourist traffic. It also gets a new route altogether, linking Majuro, in the the Marshalls, with Ainerican Samoa via Tarawa and Funafuti, in the Gilbert and Ellice. British authority is also needed before the airline can take this one up, and in any case traffic is likely to be slight at the beginning. A team of Conti nental experts is currently surveying the route, and nothing is likely to start before next year.

Now that its routes have been approved, Continental will go ahead speedily with its plans to build hotels in each of the six districts of the Trust Territory. It already has opened resort hotels on Guam, Koror and Truk and the next looks like being on Saipan.

Pan American did not go away from the Pacific route case empty handed. The same CAB decision also gave PanAm US authority for ser vices from Honolulu connecting with Pago Pago, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Western Samoa, Fiji, New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

This will put PanAm in compe tition with Air Pacific, the Fiji-based regional airline, and Western Samoa’s Polynesian Airlines, and we can ex pect some hard-bargaining before PanAm gets the chance to take up everything in its CAB licence.