A former Speaker and Cabinet Minister in Samoa has warned about an alleged move by Air New Zealand to “kill” the newly opened international airline, Samoa Airways.
La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt told Parliament yesterday that he has noticed a change in the way Air New Zealand is operating.
“All of a sudden we are seeing them doing things they have never done before, and they have suddenly dropped their fares,” said Laaulialemalietoa.
The new backbencher who was until recently Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries asked why Air New Zealand was suddenly doing this after Samoa Airways took to the skies.
He also said that Air New Zealand was also increasing flight frequency to Samoa as well as using bigger capacity planes.
“To the minister responsible for Samoa Airways, Air New Zealand is out to kill our company,” he said.
He called on all Samoans to embrace the new airline saying, “united we stand, divided we fall.”
