Four airlines fly to Rarotonga — Air N.Z.

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 14

Four airlines fly to Rarotonga — Air N.Z.

PA Auckland Air New Zealand is not the only international airline with rights to fly into the Cook Islands, according to an Air New Zealand spokesman. He was responding to an assertion by the Premier of the Cook Islands, Sir Thomas Davis, that Air New Zealand had exclusive rights into Rarotonga. Because of Air New Zealand's cuts in Rarotongan services, the Cook Islands faced , the loss of millions .of dollars in tourism and exports, Sir Thomas said. But three other countries have rights to fly their own airlines into Rarotonga.

They are France, which has nominated U.T.A., the United States, which has not nominated an airline, and Samoa, which has nominated Air Polynesia. It is believed that some years ago Pan American World Airways showed interest in the Rarotongan services. Air New Zealand also denied the assertion that the smaller Boeing 737 s it uses on some of the services now took twice as long to get to Rarotonga as the bigger DClOs. Both aircraft took about the same time — that should

have been self-evident, the spokesman said. Traffic in Rarotonga, had dropped significantly over the last year. The airline used the Boeing 737 on some services because ’ traffic could not justify the bigger DClOs. Frequencies had been reduced. ' - The two flights a week are both at the week-end. One is a DCIO service which flies from Auckland and returns, and the other is a Boeing 737 which calls into Rarotonga both ways on its “Coral Route” flight to Samoa and Tahiti.