The government of Samoa strongly denied it is interfering with Air New Zealand operations to the country in order to aid the local flag carrier, Samoa Airways (OL, Apia Faleolo), the Sunday Samoan reported on January 27.
"The government does not get involved in the operation of Air New Zealand. We have nothing to do with that," the Minister of Public Enterprises Lautafi Fio Purcell said, underlying that the government is not trying to exercise pressure on the New Zealandic carrier to use only narrowbody A320 aircraft on the route instead of larger B777-200(ER)s. His comments were seconded by the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi.
Samoan MP La’auliolemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt had earlier commanded the government for the decision to relaunch Samoa Airways and urged the Samoans to fly on the local carrier rather than on Air New Zealand. He had also complained that following the launch of Samoa Airways, the New Zealandic competitor lowered fares, threatening the viability of the Samoan flag carrier.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Samoa Airways operates 7x weekly between Apia Faleolo and Auckland International with the company's sole jet aircraft, a B737-800 wet-leased from Neos Air (NO, Milan Malpensa). For its part, Air New Zealand serves this route 8x weekly using both A320 and B777-200(ER) jets. Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) was denied traffic rights on this route by the Samoan government in 2017.
Samoa Airways launched operations in October 2017. Besides the jet services to Auckland and Sydney Kingsford Smith, the state-owned carrier also took over regional flights from Polynesian Airlines, operated with a fleet of three DHC-6-300s.
