Political turbulence has cast an unwelcome shadow over the South Pacific, but for at least some of the smaller island airlines, growth appears to have returned.
Samoan flag carrier, Polynesian Airlines - a one-jet airline - will take delivery of a second Boeing 737 in November. The new aircraft, a 737-800 on operating lease, will allow Polynesian to launch longer routes from Samoa to Honolulu and Sydney - its first expansion in years.
Qantas Airways, which already codeshares with Polynesian on flights to Samoa, will now codeshare on Polynesian's connecting flights from Sydney via Samoa to Tahiti. The move cements the relationship between the carriers, building on a tie-up of their frequent flyer programmes that started in July.
Polynesian expects delivery of a second 737-800 next September and will decide then whether to keep the single 737-300 it has operated until now.
Separately, Air Caledonie International is seeking US approval to codeshare with French carrier AOM on proposed non-stop flights between Los Angeles and the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
No other airline has operated this long distance route before. It opens the possibility of one-stop connections between the US West Coast and a number of Australasian destinations.
This trans-Pacific route is part of a proposed Airbus A340-200 service which AOM plans to operate twice weekly from Paris-Los Angeles-New Caledonia. If the codeshare gains US approval, the carriers plan to begin the service on 4 December.
Finally, Solomon Airlines has resumed full international operations. Overseas flights were suspended in June following an attempted coup in the Solomon Islands, and then partially restored through the once-weekly wet-lease of a Boeing 737-300 from Air Vanuatu for a service between Honiara and Brisbane.
It was not until Australia lifted its travel advisory in October, however, that Qantas agreed to let Solomon Airlines resume its twice-weekly lease of a 737-300 normally used by the island carrier. With renewed access to that aircraft, Solomon Airlines has dropped its Air Vanuatu wet-lease and is operating its full route network on its own.
Source: Airline Business
