regional airlines from Samoa - any left?

finally, my intercontinental flights are confirmed and I'll be in Samoa from Feb 24 to March 9. I'm now looking at what other islands to explore (in my rather limited time) and from what I found most airlines have gone bankrupt in the past few years (one example is Royal Tongan: still recommended in the 2006 edition of the LP but bankrupt since 2004 - grrrr!!!).

I was hoping to be able to use Pacific Blue / Polynesian Blue but their web sites are out of service (same with the Virgin Blue homepage) - is there any airline left operating from Samoa?

As I am definitely not going to pay 350+ Euro return for the Air New Zealand flight to Tonga, it looks as if Polynesian Airlines to Pago Pago is the only choice for me. Even if they join those other airlines in bankruptcy, I won't lose that much money as the return flight is less than 100 Euro...

Can anyone offer a "Plan B"-airline ofering flights from Upolu to Tongatapu?

Thanks in advance!

Mark

You didn't mention if the this part of the Pacific was you sole destination or part of a RTW trip.

As I am definitely not going to pay 350+ Euro return for the Air New Zealand flight to Tonga

Then you won't be going to Tonga.

It's too bad you didn't do a bit of research before you booked. You could have got on the LA-Samoa-Tonga-Auckland flight...

Pago Pago is the only choice for me

Sounds like that would be your only other island option. It would be easy to get there for a few days if you wanted to see how the other Samoan half lives.

I'll be in Samoa from Feb 24 to March 9

I would say from experience, this is a good amount of time in Samoa... actually the bare minimum if you want to see the country properly. It would not be very economic to try to squeeze in some other island countries (other than American Samoa) in that short period of time.

Air Pacific also flies between Samoa and Fiji.
But you can't expect much lower fares on that airline either - the South Pacific is not Europe or SE Asia when it comes to international flights!

Pago is worth a day or two. Tutuila is a very beautiful Island. It would be interesting to compare the two Samoas...

thanks for the quick input guys!

islandboi, I had done my homework and I am aware that the very flight that takes me to Samoa continues to Tonga - but guess what that extra stop would have cost?
Hint: the answer is hidden somewhere in my original post ;-)

The trouble with Air Pacific is their Samoa flights are from Nadi while the ones to Tonga leave from Suva.

So it's Savaii, Upolu / Manono and possibly Tutuila / Aunuu for me. I agree that I certainly won't get bored in just two weeks but that's all I have in terms of holiday. Too bad but worse things happen at sea...

Air Pacific flights to Tonga are actually from Nadi via Suva.

But it would not be worth going to Tonga from Samoa via Fiji, Air Pacific would be worth looking at if considering Fiji instead of Tonga!

If you do head to Am. Samoa, check out those offshore (an hour or so flight) in I think the Manua group(??) A poster here handles their website and goes every yr. Sounds like a nice island. I think it;s Olosoga or something like that.

Having said that, it also depends on the flights to and from there, as they are not daily from what I remember. Maybe a couple each week.
So, just a thought.

Edited by: Raro

Fly to the Manu'a Islands! They are a 25 minute flight out of Pago Pago and there are at least 5 flights a week. More flights are scheduled as needed.

Some links:

http://www.interislandair.com/index_files/FlightSchedules.htm</a>

http://www.vaotolodge.com</a>

Out of interest - what pages and what routes were you checking on Pacific Blue? The site is definitely working now - I use it on a daily basis. However, I wonder if perhaps you were putting in a fare which wasn't possible?

No biggie either way as you would have to fly back to NZ or Australia to travel through the pacific on Virgin. I was just curious :)

if only I got to a point where I could check destinations (that's all I wanted)...

On all three sites

http://www.polynesianblue.com
http://www.flypacificblue.com
http://www.virginblue.com.au

I have the message "web page cannot be displayed" (every day since Dec 11 on several computers). I sent an e-mail to Virgin Atlantic (this was the Virgin group site closest related to Virgin Blue I could get to work) but they replied that they don't have a clue and I should call the hotline (service? can you spell that?).

Anyway - based on the input I received here (thanks again) I have decided to stay in Samoa (Western & American) and not venture further.

Hmm that's kind of bizarre - I can open every single one of those sites! I suspect even if you had you may not have found quite what you were looking for though as like I said, the flights go via Oz or NZ.

Enjoy your trip :)