Central Malaita Student Association Blog Site: Australia refuses to grant clearance

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Australia refuses to grant clearance

SIBCOnline news
19 March, 2007 - 12:12pm.

By A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

AUSTRALIA is refusing to grant Solomon Airlines clearance to fly into and out of Brisbane via Santo in Vanuatu, airline and civil aviation sources have confirmed.The sources said Australia’s stand is costing the national carrier tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue every week.Sources said the national carrier applied for clearance about August last year. It wants to fly the Brisbane-Honiara route via Santo on Tuesday and Saturday. Its return flights the next day would also go through Santo.However, Australia has declined the application, officials said.Solomon Star was unable to get any comments from either the Solomon Airlines management or its board yesterday.Board Chairman, Martin Maga, left the country last Thursday for Brussels on ACP business.Mr. Maga is the Chairman of Solomon Islands Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee.It is public knowledge within civil aviation and airline circles that Australia’s decision is linked to the continuing stand-off between Honiara and Canberra.It is understood that initially there were encouraging signs the licence would be granted in no time. However, there’s been a dramatic change in the mood since the stand off began earlier this year.“No one on the Australian side wants to talk to us about this anymore. It’s a worrying situation. Each time we call, you would be put through a junior officer who just worked you through the system,” one airline official said.Solomon Airlines is understood to be very concerned about the financial implications of the protracted delay.“It has the potential to cripple Solomon Airlines, which has been dependent on its international sector to finance its domestic routes,” one source said.Solomon Airlines’ decision to drop Port Vila from its new service was to help the Vanuatu Government in promoting Santo as the country’s new commercial centre.Santo is also being promoted as the hub of Vanuatu’s growing lucrative tourism industry which Air Vanuatu does not have the capacity to service.Solomon Airlines’ inaugural flight into Santo planned for last December was booked out weeks before. These had to be canceled in the last minute due to non-clearance.Solomon Airlines is understood to be hurting financially because its lease of a Boeing 737-300 jet from a Spanish company was linked to the arrangement to service the Santo’s tourism market out of Australia.The national carrier now services the Santo market via Honiara. Its Tuesday service to Nadi returns to Honiara the next day via Santo. Its Saturday service to Nadi stops over in Santo.And there seems to be takers.“Who wants to fly all the way to Honiara just to get to Santo? It is expensive,” one regular traveler said recently.Most worrying to the airline is the return service from Nadi. Most flights are virtually empty. The flight from Nadi on 7 March was a classic example. There were only five passengers on the Nadi-Santo sector. Four more passengers joined the last leg of the flight to Honiara that day.Santo is a tourism mecca for Australian divers, a fact which influenced Solomon Airlines to drop Port Vila from its schedule last year.While civil aviation and airline officials are hopeful for a breakthrough, no one is really sure when this might be.

posted by administrator @ 12:12 PM

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