POLYNESIAN AIR LOOKS TO REOPEN FAGALI‘I AIRPORT

Airport near Apia has been closed since 2005

By Alan Ah Mu

APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, May 12, 2009)—Polynesian Airlines aims to reopen Fagali’i airport on June 29.

"Hopefully we can achieve that," Chief Executive Officer, Taua Li’ali’alefao Fatu Tielu, said yesterday. The target date is the start of the new financial year, Taua said. He hopes too the re-opening of the airport, which was closed in 2005, will lessen the negative impact of the closure in American Samoa of the Samoa Packing cannery.

"I’m sure it’ll have an impact," Taua said of the closure, although he is unsure how big that will be.

Most of the cannery workers in American Samoa are from here.

They fly home for holidays like White Sunday and Christmas three or four times a year, Taua said.

Polynesian Airlines owns Fagali’i Airport.

None of their rivals on the inter-Samoa route have applied to use the airport, Taua said.