Samoa Air (2012)

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Samoa Airlines
IATA code : (without)
ICAO code : SZB
Call sign : (unknown)
Founding: 2012
Operation stopped: 2015
Seat: Apia , SamoaSamoaSamoa 
Home airport : Faleolo airport
Management: Chris Langton
Fleet size: 1
Aims: regional
Samoa Airlines ceased operations in 2015. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Samoa Air (officially Island Enterprises Limited ) was a regional airline headquartered in Apia , the capital of Samoa . The company ceased operations in autumn 2015. The company sparked international media coverage in 2013 because it weighed its passengers and calculated the ticket price individually based on their body weight.

history

Samoa Air was founded in Apia in spring 2012 as a domestic airline by the former RAAF pilot Chris Langton and started operations on June 15, 2012 with a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander ( registration number : 5W-CSJ). A second aircraft of this type (5W-JUN) was put into service five days later. The company initially operated national liner routes from Apia-Fagali'i to Asau and Maota and was also active in charter traffic . A Cessna 172 P (5W-RJO) was registered for the company on September 12, 2012 as the third aircraft .

In November 2012, Samoa Air began to weigh its passengers including their luggage and to set the flight prices based on the total weight. According to its own information, it was the first airline in the world with such a pricing policy. Company boss Chris Langton stated that he saw it as an education measure for overweight people. The idea was welcomed by the head of the Samoas health department. In Samoa at that time, over 80% of the population was overweight. This made the island nation, along with its neighbors Nauru , Tonga and the Cook Islands, one of the states with the most overweight people .

On March 11, 2013, the company took international scheduled flights from Apia-Fagali'i, Faleolo and Maota to Pago Pago and Ofu in American Samoa . In addition, she set up a connection from Faleolo to Vavaʻu in Tonga , which was served with stops in Niuatoputapu and Niuafoʻou (also Tonga). This route was given up again after a short time. In June 2013 the company only flew to Pago Pago internationally.

From July 2012 to June 2013, Samoa Air only carried 400 passengers and 420 kg of air freight. In March 2014 she stopped the regular service and sold the two Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders. At the beginning of 2015 only the Cessna 172P was registered with the company, which was used as an air taxi for occasional services. At that time, the company planned to set up a connection to Tarawa (Kiribati) via Funafuti ( Tuvalu ) in cooperation with the Kiribati Coral Sun Aviation , but this was not realized. From 10 February 2015, the company hired a sat Cessna 337 G (VH-ODL) for the Government of Vanuatu for fisheries monitoring , where Australia took over the cost of these operations. Samoa Air ceased operations in November 2015 after the Australian Department of Defense terminated the inspection flight contract.

fleet

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samoa Air's Facebook page, June 15, 2012 (in English), accessed April 6, 2018
  2. ↑ Samoa Air's Facebook page, June 20, 2012 (in English), accessed April 6, 2018
  3. ↑ Samoa Air's Facebook page, July 18, 2012 (in English), accessed April 6, 2018
  4. ^ A b Government of Samoa, Office for the Minister of Works, Transport and Infrascructure, Annual Report 2013-2014, March 3, 2015, page 13 , accessed April 6, 2018
  5. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine, Samoa Air: The heavier the passenger, the more expensive the ticket , accessed on April 7, 2018
  6. ↑ Welt, Airline calculates prices based on the weight of the passenger, April 3, 2013 , accessed on April 6, 2018
  7. ↑ Ch-Aviation, Samoa Air launches scheduled flights to neighboring countries, March 30, 2013 (in English), accessed April 6, 2018
  8. ↑ Samoa Air, flight plan June 2013 ( Memento from June 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Government of Samoa, Office for the Minister of Works, Transport and Infrascructure, Annual Report 2012-2013, July 8, 2014, page 14 , accessed April 6, 2018
  10. ↑ Samoa Air ( Memento from May 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Ch-Aviation, Samoa Air partnering Kiribati's Coral Sun Air for regional ops, February 13, 2015 (in English), accessed on April 7, 2018
  12. ↑ Vanuata Daily Post, Australia funds air surveillance to protect Vanuatu's maritime resources, 5 March 2015 (in English), accessed on April 8, 2018
  13. ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald, Claims costly MH370 search leaves Australia blind to illegal fishing, November 29, 2015 , accessed April 9, 2018