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A rare example of South Pacific airline rationale was the use of a single Ansett 727-200 painted on either side in the livery of its flag bearer. This happy arrangement faded away though with the NZ Government's continuing changes to GIi's Rarotongan landing rig/Jts VH-RMN now flies solely m the colours of Polynesian. (Rob Finlayson & Keith Myers)
South Pacific Airlines Bloodbath
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The Future of the South Pacific Regional Airlines
More experts have conducted more studies on civil aviation amongst the South Pacific islands than any comparable area in the world.
Often, they have concluded that the only viable policy for the Pacific’s isolated islands is to replace or subordinate their individual second-level airlines with a regional cooperative carrier. As one report put it, “Cooperation is essential to deal with too much competition on main routes, poor service on essential feeder routes, and costly duplications.”
This conclusion makes economic sense. Long, thin routes between small, scattered and generally poor populations mean high operating costs with little profit. These conditions, according to a study for the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation, “impose perhaps unique requirements upon air transport systems.” Isolation raises fuel costs, planes often must go elsewhere for maintenance, and neither tourists nor the locals wish to fly at night, so expensive aircraft spend far too much time parked on the tarmac.
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