Essential Air Service at Pago Pago, American Samoa

OST-2007-27719

March 14, 2007

Request for Formal Review of EAS Requirements

This is a letter requesting the Department of Transportation to initiate a formal review of Essential Air Service requirements for Pago Pago, American Samoa. We have not had such a review for over 22 years. The last one was contained in an EAS Order 1984-10-18 in EAS Docket 633 in 1984. We request that at least the last six years of traffic between Pago Pago and Honolulu be reviewed in detail to provide an understanding of our present requirements.

During this time period, and especially in most recent years, it has been impossible for the people in our community to make a reservation to Honolulu from circa the middle of May for travel during the month of June. All three flights scheduled weekly in June by Hawaiian Airlines, the sole carrier operating on this route, are regularly sold out by mid May, and people are told that they will have to wait until the following July to have an opportunity to leave the Territory for the United States.

Hawaiian Airlines, being well aware of this shortfall in available seats, has nevertheless, year after year, refused to provide additional lift. Consequently, there is need for Hawaiian Airlines to be ordered to operate a fourth weekly flight during the month of June, as an EAS requirement.

We would be grateful if a revised EAS Order could be issued in time to correct the annual degradation of service that commences at the end of May through the month of June.

By: Governor, Togiola Tulafono

Order 2007-3-26
OST-2007-27719

Issued and Served March 30, 2007

Order Affirming EAS Determination

Over the last several years there have been periods when Aloha Airlines served the Pago Pago market in competition against Hawaiian, and we wanted to see the effect of competition and whether Hawaiian was charging "monopoly enabled high fares," as the Governor stated. Appendix C shows passenger fare data from 2002-2006. During December 2003 and most of 2004, Aloha Airlines competed against Hawaiian. Hawaiian's average fare for 2004 was $391 per passenger, actually higher than in 2002 when there was no competition. In 2005 and 2006, Hawaiian's fare averaged $445 arid $468 fares, respectively. Although those fares are higher than when Aloha was serving the market, they are not markedly so, especially in view of higher fuel costs during those years. Based on those data, we cannot conclude that Hawaiian's fares are suppressing passenger traffic.

Based on all of the above, we will affirm the EAS determination for Pago Pago, American Samoa, established in CAB Order 1984-10-18. We further find that Hawaiian's historical service levels of three round trips a week in the four peak months and two round trips a week the rest of the year continue to fully meet Pago Pago's EAS requirements.

By: Andrew Steinberg