The federally funded air transport study for American Samoa looked at air service by two Asian carriers to the territory and found it was not feasible due to among other things, the long distances involved.

Samoa News reported in November 2012 that then Gov. Togiola Tulafono visited Indonesia a month earlier and among the issues discussed with Indonesian leaders was the possibility of direct flights to the territory brining an influx of Indonesian tourists who are described by the American Samoa Visitor’s Bureau as big spenders with their current target markets Australia and New Zealand in the South Pacific.

Togiola’s visit to the Asian country came after American Samoa reached a sister-city partnership with Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, which is mostly Christian and the administration at the time wanted to explore all possibilities to boost tourists travel.

The territorial government was hoping that Indonesia’s national airline, Garuda Indonesia would look favorably on air service to and from American Samoa, as the airline expanded its global routes.

And since Samoa News has reported in the past several weeks about the air transport study awarded to Washington D.C. based UBM Aviation-ASM or Airport Strategy Marketing Limited, several local and off island Samoans (and non Samoans) have inquired if the study looked at the market for Asian tourists.

As a matter of fact, the study did look at Asia, saying that American Samoa in 2012 was in contact with government transport officials in both Indonesia and Taiwan. At the time, both airlines expressed some interest in possible air service to Pago Pago “but the challenges make it impractical.”

The study points out that since a 2007 crash, Garuda Indonesia has been growing aggressively with expansion of both wide-body and narrow-body fleets. While the airline’s fleet is primarily B737-800 aircraft, it has ordered a new, more efficient design aircraft to enter service this year or later at Garuda’s low-cost subsidiary Citilink.

Garuda could originate service from either the nation’s capital Jakarta or Bali’s capital Denpasar, the study says, adding that the distances of 5000 miles or more would require a one-stop routing via Northern Australia or Papua New Guinea.

“With no history or commonality of interest, neither would generate a commercial volume of traffic,” the study points out.

The air transport study also looked at Taiwan’s two flag carriers - China Airlines and Eva Air, the subsidiary of a huge multimodal transportation conglomerate. It says Taiwan is more than 5000 miles from PPG and, like Indonesia, lacks a compelling one-stop routing.

“We have reviewed these possibilities but concluded that none would be feasible. Traffic is too thin and distances are much too far. We have not contacted any of the large Asian airlines,” the study says.

OTHER PACIFIC CARRIERS

Meanwhile, the study says that Virgin Australia Airlines is the operating partner with the Samoan government in Virgin Samoa, which flies a B737-800 aircraft between Apia and Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney.

“That relationship makes Virgin an unlikely candidate for Pago Pago service but Virgin should be receptive to working with the local airlines on connecting arrangements through Apia to Pago Pago,” it says. “That could improve convenience for American Samoa residents and visitors and potentially promote tourism and deliver more passengers to Virgin, which could sell side trips to American Samoa.”

The study also pointed out that Jetstar, the low-cost affiliate of Australia’s Qantas Airways operates in the New Zealand market with a fleet of nine A320 aircraft based in Auckland and flown with a New Zealand crew.

Jetstar is reported to be interested in the Pacific island markets, which it sees as more lucrative than New Zealand domestic routes, it says.