Pride of the Pacific

In any contest for the most inspired strategic decision by a New Zealand company , development of the Coral Route would have to be a front runner

Conquering Isolation Neil Rennie

LINKING New Zealand with Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands and the Society Islands, the Coral Route, as it has become affectionately known, was the backbone for securely establishing Air New Zealand’s international route expansion.

The “coral” route created a fund of goodwill among the peoples of the Pacific islands, providing regular com munication links and a unique tourist experience which no other carrier could emulate.

Today, Air New Zealand, building upon the strength and uniqueness of the South Pacific islands, operates six services beyond Fiji to North America (Honolulu, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto), one service terminating in Nadi and one 8747 service beyond Nadi

to Narita, Tokyo a week.

The services through Fiji are indica tive of a strategy pursued to link all the islands of the Pacific served by the company with North America.

A once-weekly service operates be yond Tonga and Western Samoa and beyond Rarotonga to Honolulu and Los Angeles. Bi-weekly services are provided beyond Papeete to Los Angeles. The Coral Route links the destinations of Fiji, the Cook Islands and Tahiti together once a week.

Eventually, through the Air New Zea land network, all services operated to Los Angeles link with almost daily services to Europe (four times per week to London and twice weekly Frankfurt services).

Air New Zealand links coral atolls with other European destinations by taking advantage of strategic alliances estab lished with SAS and Swissair. Even though Air New Zealand may not fly to Zurich it is possible to link any desti nation on the Air New Zealand network with Swissair operations. (All services are operated by 8767 or 8747 aircraft.) This opens up enormous potential for the islands of the Pacific to penetrate all the major inbound markets of Europe and attract visitors to the South Pacific.

Neither should we overlook the poten tial to transport high value freight to these markets of North America and Europe.

Of Asia and Latin America the potential is enormous. It is a matter of the markets maturing and of creating destinational awareness of the unique ness and beauty of our part of the world.

Air New Zealand truly does unite with pride the destinations of the South Pacific.