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By Fili Sagapolutele
Samoa News Correspondent
Hawaiian Air seeking the federal government's intervention to respond to American Samoa's concerns was anticipated by his administration Governor Togiola said on his weekend radio program.
Togiola said it is his personal opinion that Hawaiian does not want to respond directly to local concerns, especially on the issue of reducing air fares for the Pago Pago route, because the airline does not want to reduce the current high fares.
So instead of addressing the high fares and excessive charges imposed on American Samoa's passengers, Hawaiian Air is dragging the issue around by asking DOT for a ruling on the executive order, said Togiola.
Instead of Hawaiian Air responding directly to the order, Togiola said, other people have defended the airline and his administration was prepared for this. Without identifying the defenders, he claimed there are many Hawaiian Air friends and supporters out there.
Now that Hawaiian Air has petitioned the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to rule on whether his executive order barring the airline from landing in Pago Pago is enforceable, the governor says he plans to raise concerns that the airline is not meeting the required 700-plus available seats a week for the Pago Pago market.
He said on his weekend radio program that this is but one of the issues that he wants DOT to address and he is not concerned with Hawaiian's petition because his administration reviewed and researched all necessary regulations, including how Hawaiian Air would respond or not respond to the July 26 executive order.
He said one of the requirements [under the Essential Air Service agreement] that Hawaiian is not meeting is he required number of available seats a week for American Samoa.
Hawaiian is required to provide 700 available seats a week to Pago Pago, said Togiola, and the usual two weekly flights do not meet this requirement. Even the three weekly flights, for the summer months, does not fulfill this requirement because Hawaiian is to provide 1,018 seats during the busy months.
Hawaiian currently uses a Boeing 767-300 fleet of aircraft, which carries 252 passengers, for its South Pacific and mainland flights.
Hawaiian started using B767 aircraft for Pago Pago in late January 2003, replacing DC-10 planes that carry 304 passengers. It was at this time that questions were raised of whether Hawaiian was to increase weekly flights to three a week to meet the required number of available seats to Pago Pago.
Congressman Faleomavaega Eni also raised the issue with Hawaiian after receiving questions from his constituents at the time. Faleomavaega told Samoa News in February 2003 that Hawaiian assured him that every effort would be made "to accommodate passenger demand on the Pago Pago-Honolulu route."
"This means, if there is a passenger demand, the airline will make every effort to fill that need," Faleomavaega said at the time, which Wagner reiterated in a separate interview.
Faleomavaega also said the airline had determined it was not economically feasible to add another weekly flight for the Pago Pago route using Boeing 767 aircraft.
While there is a decrease in available seats, the congressman was informed by the airline, the cargo/baggage capacity for B-767 was larger, providing 67,500 pounds a flight, compared to DC-10s with 26,000 pounds.
Hawaiian believes the Governor's executive order is preempted by federal law, and the governor argues otherwise.
"In the interest of clarifying the situation for all concerned, we're asking DOT to rule on this," said Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner in a statement last Thursday.
Reach the reporter at fili@samoanews.com
Osini Faleatasi, Inc. dba Samoa News reserves all rights.
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