Samoa Airways has received approval from the US Department of Transportation to continue to transport passengers, cargo, and mail, between Tutuila and Manu’a for a period of six months from January 12 to July 10, 2025.
Cabotage rule prohibits a US carrier from providing direct service between two US points.
The airline has been operating flights between Tutuila and Manu’a under an exemption to the cabotage rule. The previous cabotage waiver for the airline expired January 11.
In its latest application, filed last month, the Samoa carrier sought a one-year exemption.
Carol Petsonk, Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, said USDOT is deferring action on the remaining portion of Samoa Airways’ application, that is its request for authority to operate beyond July 10.
Under federal regulations, USDOT may authorize a foreign air carrier to carry commercial traffic between US points under limited circumstances.
It must find that the authority is required in the public interest, that because of an emergency created by unusual circumstances not arising in the normal course of business the traffic cannot be accommodated by US carriers, that all possible effort have been made to place the traffic on US carriers and that the transportation is necessary to avoid unreasonable hardship to the traffic involved.
USDOT said the absence of US carrier passenger service, with no such service foreseeable in the near future, continues to constitute an emergency created by unusual circumstances not arising in the normal course of business.
“Based on the record in this proceeding, we concluded that no US carrier has aircraft available that could be used to conduct the operations at issue here. We also found that grant of this authority would prevent unreasonable hardship to the residents of American Samoa.”
USDOT also found that Samoa Airways was qualified to perform its proposed operations.
The department will review the exemption near the end of the six month period to see if the unusual circumstances that established the need for the exemption still exist, and will decide at that time whether the situation warrants an extension of the cabotage waiver.
