point on

Micronesia

Air services a debatable point on Guam

Mention airlines to Guam’s politicians and their eyes light up. Then they will bemuse you for hours with dissertations about open skies policies, the US Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), prospective new air lines, cargo rates and the dif ferences between th£ 747 SP and the B-52 bomber, writes Paul Addison in Guam.

Airlines and Guam’s depen dency on them are pet subjects for discussion in this US terri tory. Some see them as the way to achieve economic self-reli ance. Others, less vocal, re alistically point out that too many airlines may harm rather than help service and that more flights is not Guam’s pana cea.

Whatever the opinion, the subject is never far from the surface. The government of Guam retains an attorney in Washington DC who spent much of last year keeping up with ongoing airline dis cussions about possible new services. After the US Govern ment announced more liberal policies, 12 airlines filed appli cations to fly to Guam from either Hawaii or the US West Coast, most seeing Guam as a convenient stop on the way to China and other Asian desti nations. Despite the euphoria that the announcements brought, so far most airlines have failed to take up their options, knowing full well that financially it would be a losing

proposition.

While the politicians clam our for more airlines and more frequent flights Guam is pretty well served and it is possible to fly directly from Guam to most Asian destinations and to the South Pacific.

The most regular service is

provided by Pan American

World Airways which has been flying to Guam since 1936. Pan Am flies in daily from Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu in wide bodied 7475. From Guam to Hawaii three times a week Pan Am has

its ‘Flying Fiesta’ service with Chamorro food on board.

Pan Am also flies four times a week from Guam to Hong Kong and Manila in the Philip pines and three times a week to Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan. Once a week it also freights from the West Coast a cargo plane-load of vegetables, fresh meat and

other perishable goods.

In the early 1970 s Pan Am was in competition on the Hawaii-Guam run with Trans World Airways but TWA pulled out after losing millions of dollars. Last year Continen tal Airlines entered the market and now flies Boeing 707 s three times weekly from Los Angeles and Honolulu. The Continen tal planes then fly on to Taiwan.

In the Trust Territory, Con tinental’s subsidiary, Con tinental Air Micronesia, is the major airline. Air ‘Mike’ does the rounds three times a week - Guam, Johnson Island, Majuro in the Marshall islands, the US missile base at Kwa

jalein, Ponape, Truk and

Saipan. It also flies to Yap and Palau and makes more than 20

round trips weekly Guam-

Saipan.

Guam’s other major airline is Japan Air Lines, which flies daily 747 flights to Narita Air port near Tokyo and services mainly the 150 000 Japanese who visit Guam each year. JAL also flies DCBs four times a week to Guam from Osaka.

In October 1977 JAL started

regular direct flights, four

times a week, between Japan and Saipan and this has trig gered a tourist boom in the Northern Marianas.

Of the small airlines operat

ing Guam-Saipan-Tinian-Rota

in the Northern Marianas, the largest is Island Air, run by

Captain ‘Brandy’ Branden

berg, which now has three air craft each carrying up to nine passengers. Other inter-island operators are Fox Air and Indo-Pacific Air.

Other small airlines also serve the Trust Territory. In Palau, Micronesia’s western most district, Aero Belau, or ‘Palau’s air commuter service’ as it is sometimes called, flies twice daily from Koror to Pele liu and Anguar. Aero Belau,

which can carry up to six pass engers in its single-engined Cessna Stationair 7, is run by Robert Etchell Jr, who first came to Palau in 1973 as a stu dent missionary teacher and later formed a partnership with four Palauans and Bob Etchell Sr, to get the service air borne.

Meanwhile, regular air ser vices between the two Micro nesian districts of Ponape and Kosrae were started in March

by Pacific Missionary Aviation’s

(PMA) red and white Beechcraft 18, a twin-engined nine passenger and cargo plane. Its head, the reverend Edwin Kalau is now try ing to start a service in the Marshalls. PMA is a private non-profit corporation char tered in Guam in 1975 by Kalau.