Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi has seemingly rolled out the red carpet for Virgin Australia to continue to fly to Samoa after the Virgin Samoa joint-venture with the government ends in November.
Tuilaepa told the Samoa Observer during a recent interview that this is a good thing for Samoa.
“They have already informed us they want to continue their air services out of Samoa,” Tuilaepa said. “It can be done, because in Samoa we have an open sky policy.”
Virgin Australia has put in a formal application to Samoa Civil Aviation for this to happen with the government.
In July, Australian Aviation reported that Virgin had applied to Australia’s International Air Services Commission (IASC) for 880 seats of capacity a week between Australia and Samoa.
Virgin Australia said then it intended to commence five services per week between Australia and Samoa from 13 November 2017.
“These flights will be operated with Boeing 737-800 aircraft configured with 176 seats.”
In May, the Samoan government announced the Virgin Samoa joint venture between Virgin Australia and Samoa would be terminated by November.
Virgin Samoa is 49 per cent held by Virgin Australia, 49 per cent by the Samoan government and two per cent by Samoa-based tourism company Grey Investment Group.
Tuilaepa’s tone is an interesting change.
When the news first broke that Virgin was interested in flying to Samoa, Prime Minister Tuilaepa warned that it might not be that easy.
He indicated then that at the end of the day, his government would have a huge say in deciding the outcome of Virgin’s application.
Tuilaepa said at the time he was waiting to see what Virgin will bring to the negotiating table, but that it would be stupid for government to say yes again and again.
