PAPEETE, French Polynesia (July 31,2000 – Oceania Flash/SPC)---French Polynesia's flag carrier Air Tahiti Nui (ATN) has opened its stock to the public in a bid to collect some 300 million French Pacific Francs (CFP, US$ 2,331,899 million), the daily newspaper La Dépêche de Tahiti reports.
Around 40 percent of the sum (117.5 million CFP/US$ 913,327) is to be taken care of by the Territory (which holds 39 percent of the stock), leaving 182.5 million CFP (US$ 1,418,572) to be found.
This is the eighth call for subscriptions launched by ATN. Subscriptions opened last June 15 and will close at the end of August.
At a Board meeting last month, General Manager Nelson Levy said ATN, after analyzing the results of one and a half years of operation, could break even financially two years from now.
Seat occupancy rates for one of its most popular routes, Tahiti-Los Angeles, has steadily increased by 30 percent during the first half of 2000, he said.
Levy...