New Regional Flight

Inter Island Airways says its ready to start a Pagopago/Nukualofa/Niue/Pagopago service twice a week.
A new 30-seater Dornier 328 110 turbo prop which can fly at 30,000ft at 380 mph will probably start the new schedule in November and will offer new opportunities for island hoppers.
Its understood the airline is at present negotiating landing rights in Niue which are unlikely to be opposed by Air NZ which offers a weekly jet service from Auckland to Niue direct.

From www.niueconficential.com

Sounds great for tourists, not only to get to Niue, but as an additional Tonga-Samoa link!

Just wondering how long it might survive... Niueans themselves surely wouldn't fly to Tonga or Samoa too much.

I remember when I flew Apia-Pago-Niue there were only 8 passangers bound for Niue from Samoa.

Yes Lazlo, It would certainly need to be promoted. Niue has traditional ties with Samoa but our population is smaller than ever. There is the east/west market for travelling bureacrats and business people. Not having to go to NZ would certainly be a plus. The flight you were on was never promoted. We are in the process of replacing our NZ Tourism Rep who has performed extremely poorly over the last 6 years. Hopefully his replacement will be on to it.

BTW we now have modest visitor accommodation in the village

http://www.interislandair.com/

Crossie, perhaps your link should read: http://www.niueconfidential.com/

I still think you should try and lure Air Pacific over somehow!

They seem to be quite successful at making their routes last, and Fiji has the most tourists in the region.

They might realize that the only really "busy" route from Niue is to NZ, but perhaps it could be a stopover on the way to the Cooks, which more tourists might want to link with Fiji.

I would be very glad to be proven wrong but I do not see any chance of that route becoming profitable. It had been tried so many times but there is no local travel between these destinations and the very few island hopping tourists do never fill enough seats. There is only one single flight left between Samoa and Tonga, even shared with Auckland and Los Angeles traffic - and it really is covering demand already. And you understand that - why should a Samoan travel to Tonga? Or a Tongan to Niue? Pago is even more a dead end for that.

I agree about islanders having little reason to go to neighbouring island states, but at least the Samoa-Tonga link does seem to get (more than) enough customers.
When I was in Samoa, I tried to rebook my ticket for that route, and Air NZ staff in Apia said the only seats available in the same (economy) class were for a month later!
Of course, the people occupying those seats may have been mostly flying from LA or Samoa to NZ, or from LA to Tonga, but still.

Air Pacific also manages to sell "Triangle Fares" for Fiji-Tonga-Samoa-Fiji, so I guess there must be at least some demand by tourists.

I also have my doubts about traffic to Niue alone though - but perhaps making it a stopover between Tonga and the Samoas could work a bit better.

But of course, if this route does materialize, I guess those wishing to island-hop had better use it quickly!

If this manages to last for a couple of years (I am planning a trip to Europe next year, apart from a month visiting my Solomons "family" at Christmas) - I would certainly be interested, as travelling via Auckland is a serious detour when my nearest Australian airports are Brisbane and the Gold Coast,
I have wanted to visit Samoa for years, and doing a round trip with Tonga and Niue would be icing on the cake.

Aloha did offer Honolulu - Pago - Rarotonga and did not have enough bookings. Polynesian Airlines had Apia - Pago - Vavau - Nukualofa and a separate route from Apia to Niue. Nothing was viable. Simply not enough passengers. Yes, flights from Samoa to Tonga are full because the seats are taken by people going from Los Angeles to Tonga or from Samoa to Auckland. But apart from an occasional tourist like you, Laszlo, nobody bothers.

At least the routes to and from Samoa cover the needs of the locals and of package tourists from Australia and New Zealand staying in the resorts. That's it. Flights are a lot cheaper now than they were 12 years ago when I moved to Samoa. To go to Auckland I sometimes pay 60% only of what I used to pay then. In that competitive environment there is no place anymore for anything but full planes on main routes. Unfortunately.

Bear in mind that Air Pacific somehow manages to happily operate a whole range of inter-island routes though - so it can be done.

An old Australian staying in Fiji told me that he noticed how many small island nations like Tonga used to try and fly big aircraft (for prestige reasons), which they could never fill up, until they went bankrupt.
While successful airlines like Aircalin used small planes that were initially laughed at, but survived.
Wasn't Polynesian using bigger planes than Inter Island does?
Planning for a smaller market instead of being too ambitious might be the key here.

I agree that most tourists go to the islands for a one week, one country holiday. But I still think there would be enough interested in visiting more than one popular country to fill a smaller plane every week or so. Multicountry trips are common in other regions, so I guess they would be more popular here too if schedules and routes made them easier and more affordable.

Anyway, the SW Pacific is still reasonably well-connected - except for Niue, which is more a satellite of NZ for practical purposes.
For example the the trip OG would like to do could still be done easily (and reasonably cheaply) by flying from the Solomons to Samoa via Fiji on Air Pacific, then to Tonga on Air NZ, then back to AU on Virgin. Only Niue would require going through NZ.

West to East/North connections are much more problematic.

Laszlo, I don't live in the Solomons most of the time - I'm in
Australia, so I don't need to go via Honiara. And the point of my reply is that I probably wouldn't go to Niue if I had to go via Auckland.
However, if it was linked to one of the other countries I want to visit, it would make it worthwhile.
I am not rich enough, nor do i have enough time off work, to do the sort of trip you suggest.

I know you live in Queensland, but as I also know you visit the Solomons every year anyway, I thought you might just do it all at once! :-)
Of course doing it out of AU is even easier, but the route I described was a fine example that in the Western Pacific inter-island routes are still alive and well.
Apart from Air Pacific, Solomon Airlines, Air Vanuatu and Aircalin all manage to offer flights to all their important island neighbours, even if many of those flights are (sensibly) code-shares.
And from what I remember, tourists were a significant portion of passengers on those flights, including the Fiji to Samoa one, so it's not like I was one a very few "occasional" ones interested in taking them.

Niue, with its tiny population and very low-key tourism scene, is certainly a different matter though.

I checked some of the skeds on Interislandair. Some flites are rather long...
Pago to Tau...lv at 10am...ar at 10:30PM!
Ofu to Pago....lv at 1:50pm and ar 1:15pm....( this is a fast flight)? Oka....

Polynesian Airlines used a Dash8, similar in size to the plane Inter Island Air is planning to take. Around 30 seats, mostly empty. And the Tonga-Fiji routes are going on and off as well. I do not see that Air Pacific could be able to change the lack of passengers (how?). The only advantage they bring is that they have more than one plane only. That makes their services more reliable at least.

The Fiji-Samoa route is often empty as well, except in times when students travel. Extending it to Honolulu is a smart idea - routing it to include Tonga would be nice but not smart. It had been discussed but Air Pacific did not expect enough business ... They really know their market.

Furthermore flying relatively long distances on small planes makes the trips expensive per passenger (the routes to the Northern Cook Islands show that impressively). Island hopping tourists often are budget travelers. That does not fit.

The flight times to Manua cannot be compared to the planned services. That is a very different kind of aircraft to be used.

Do you have a source for these figures, wksamoa?

All I know is that when I flew internationally between the islands (Solomons-Vanuatu, Vanuatu-Fiji, Fiji-Samoa, Fiji-NC, NC-Vanuatu), all flights except for the one to Niue very quite full - definitely more than 50%.
This was comparable to scheduled flights on national airlines within Europe.
And I didn't get the impression most passengers were budget travellers at all.
Far from it, actually. The budget travellers were mostly on a RTW ticket stopping only in Fiji, or on a single-country beach-holiday in Fiji or Samoa. The South Pacific is just not their place.

Just for the record, Laszlo, I don't live in Queensland - check my profile - but a good deal closer to Brisbane than Sydney.

One advantage of a Niue Tonga mid week link would allow shorter stays in Niue for business travellers where now they have to stay for a week and so don't come. It is hoped that the flexibility will encourage more island hoppers but I have my doubts. Will be interesting to hear what the fare will be.