Samoa Airways (OL, Apia Faleolo) and Fiji Airways (FJ, Nadi) have formally announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the joint exploration of commercial opportunities and partnerships.
The carriers said in a statement that under the proposed partnership, Fiji Airways will provide initial support to Samoa Airways to help launch its international services to and from Apia Faleolo to Auckland International and Sydney Kingsford Smith through the use of its established infrastructure in sales, commercial, operations, and maintenance.
The Chairman of the Board of Polynesian Airlines (Apia Fagali'i), Feesago Siaosi Fepuleai, confirmed that with the signing of the MOU, separate commercial and operations agreements are now being negotiated between the two airlines which will form part of their overall Pacific Partnership Alliance Agreement.
“The MOU we signed today gives both airlines a broad and strategic framework of how the Pacific Partnership will be negotiated and finalized," he stated. “Under the MOU, there will be specific routes like Samoa to New Zealand and Australia that will be solely managed by Samoa Airways and other routes which both airlines will jointly manage through codesharing and interlining.°.
The Prime Minister of Samoa, Sailele Malielegaoi, said government's decision to pursue the partnership with Fiji Airways was driven primarily by the need to look beyond New Zealand and Australia and open Samoa up to the world. This, he said would be done by accessing Fiji Airways’ long-haul network which includes direct flights from Los Angeles International, San Francisco, Hong Kong International, and Singapore Changi into Nadi as well as its extensive portfolio of codeshare agreements.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi confirmed Virgin Samoa (Apia Faleolo), a joint-venture with Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International), would not be renewed in December this year citing diminished profitability.
