Pago Wings hopes to begin offering charter flights on November 1st while it applies for approval for scheduled air service.
Pago Wings, owned by businessman Papali’i Laulii Alofa, will be operating the charters under Hawaii-based Pacific Air Cargo.
CEO of Pago Wings Marshall Ashley said they will be looking primarily at charters for Manu’a, including government operations flights. Charters to Samoa, Vava’u, Tonga and other islands, are also being considered “but our main emphasis is Manu’a, “ he said.
Since the first aircraft for the airline, a 9-seater Tecnam Traveller, arrived late last month, it has been housed at what used to be the Inter-Island Air hangar.
The plane has flown twice to Manu’a just for familiarization, without landing at both Ofu and Fitiuta airports, said Ashley. He adds that they will do test flights before the start of charter service.
The airline plans to have 10-12 pilots rotating in and out of Hawaii for the service here, with one pilot stationed permanently on island. Local pilot Harry Hopkinson is one of the airline’s co-pilots.
A second Tecnam Traveller should be arriving by Christmas or maybe earlier, and a third aircraft, being manufactured in Italy, is almost finished which will, then, fly to Hawaii before being flown here.
Eventually, Pago Wings will have a fleet of four Tecnam Travellers based at Pago Pago International Airport.
At present, the airline has four employees but Ashley says they will be hiring up to 15 people.
