By Pita Ligaiula in Koror, Palau
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr has called for Pacific island countries to consider creating a regional airline alliance as part of efforts to tackle high airfares and freight costs facing smaller island states.
Speaking to Pacific media on the sidelines of the Small Island States Leaders Meeting in Koror, Whipps said the meeting was aimed at strengthening multilateralism and building stronger engagement between Pacific countries and their development partners.
“The whole purpose of the SIS Meeting is to strengthen multilateralism and to really come together and let our partners know how they can engage, how they can support the Pacific Islands and how can we build a positive Pacific,”
“That’s the goal.” Whipps told Journalists in Koror.
Whipps said high travel costs could not be addressed simply through more studies or meetings and that Pacific countries needed to look at practical ways of increasing competition and cooperation among regional carriers.
“The high cost of flight, you need competition. You need to build alliances,” he said.
He said major airlines around the world had strengthened their market position through alliances, while Pacific carriers largely continued to operate outside such arrangements.
“One of the things that we’ve noticed is that as the world, the big airlines have created all these alliances, Pacific carriers are not part of any of these alliances
“Maybe we need to build our own alliance and be able to work together to leverage that capability,” Whipps claims.
He highlighted several Pacific airlines that could potentially work more closely together.
“We have Air Niugini, Solomon Airlines, Fiji Airways, Nauru Airlines. Why don’t we have one Pacific alliance?” Whipps asked.
“These are things that we have to work on together.”
The proposal comes as Pacific island countries continue to face some of the world’s highest transport costs, with expensive air travel and freight affecting tourism, trade, access to services and the cost of living.
