Airlines “Sew Up” The Region

Aviation

Hawaiian Airlines and Ansett enhance Pacific air services.

By Robin Bromby

HAWAIIAN Airlines (see Pacific Is lands Monthly , February and March) is about to further strengthen its position in the South Pacific by negotiating rights to fly Honolulu/Rar otonga/Auckland, parallel with its route between the two destinations via Pago Pago. The service, which will be run in conjunction with Air Rarotonga, replaces the Cook Islands International flight be tween Rarotonga and Auckland with drawn because of low patronage.

Contrary to earlier reports, Ansett will retain the management of Cook Islands International Airlines (CIIA) and fly weekly Sydney/Apia/Rarotonga. In fact, Ansett is now looking to expand its serv ices by examining whether the new A 320 Airbus aircraft in service from October could be used on the Apia/Honolulu run, using the landing rights of Polynesian Air lines which is also managed by Ansett.

The Boeing 727 used by Ansett is dual-liv eried: CIIA colours on one side, Polyne sian Airlines on the other.

As time of going to press formal nego tiations were still under way, but the new Hawaiian route is certain to go ahead. The deal will be that Air Rarotonga will charter space in the Hawaiian DCS, thus taking up the Cook Islands’ reciprocal rights to fly

Auckland/Rarotonga (a route also flown by Air New Zealand), and will greatly en hance the position of Hawaiian Airlines in the Pacific; in less than two years, Ha waiian has won rights to fly Apia/Hono lulu, Rarotonga/Papeete and services into Auckland and Sydney via Pago Pago. As one airline official said, once Hawaiian works Rarotonga it is a long way toward “sewing up” the Pacific.

In an interesting comment, Cook Is lands’ Minister of Civil Aviation Dr Ter epai Maoate hinted that Ansett had planned also to withdraw from the Syd ney/Rarotonga service. After meeting with Ansett’s Sir Peter Abeles, he issued a state ment that said: “Sir Peter was most sup portive and agreed to continue to assist us where possible, and it was in this spirit that he agreed to my request for the continua tion of the Sydney/Rarotonga service.”

The end of the CIIA service to Auck land is further evidence that island air ways, even when managed by larger operators, will continue to struggle while stuck with low density routes, leaving the major international airlines to dominate the region. Air Rarotonga, hitherto a small internal aviation company, will no doubt benefit from being associated with Ha waiian; it is not yet known whether by

chartering space on the airline’s DCS it will have its livery on at least part of the air liner’s exterior. That would be a substan tial gain in terms of publicity Rarotonga’s airline (and therefore its ex istence as a destination) would be pro moted wherever the DCS flew.

As for Ansett, it will continue its weekly Sydney/Rarotonga and Sydney/Port Vila service (the latter under its own colours) and operate Polynesian Airlines’ long dis tance services. These consist of the joint flight with CIIA to Sydney, and the twice weekly Apia/Nuku’alofa/Auckland serv ice, as well as flying four times a week Apia/Pago Pago.

Polynesian Airlines also operates a Twin Otter for its Pago Pago service and an Islander for internal routes.

Ansett Australia receives the first of its new A 320 Airbus aircraft in October as its 727 replacement fleet. This has raised questions in the aviation industry that the new planes could be used in the Pacific be cause of their range abilities: certainly An sett is known to be looking at the possibility of using the aircraft on the Apia/Honolulu service, not only tapping the growing tourist and business traffic on flights out of Honolulu, but the large Sa moan population resident in Hawaii. □