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Eco Air to start operations without Saipan stopover
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Posted on Jan 20 2005
Eco Airlines will commence air services from Brisbane to the Central Pacific next month without the planned stopover on Saipan, as the carrier has yet to secure the approval of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Australia-based, start-up airline will be providing the services initially on a weekly, unscheduled charter basis and will be operating two routes.
The first service will take passengers from Brisbane to Pohnpei, with a stopover in Honiara. The second will fly from Brisbane to Tarawa, the main atoll of Kiribati and onto Majuro in the Marshall Islands before returning to Brisbane.
In a telephone interview, Eco Airlines chief executive officer Rex Banks said the airline plans to extend the first service to Saipan as soon as it receives the approval of U.S. DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration.
Banks, who earlier sought for the Brisbane-Saipan flights to start by November 2004, said he did not expect the FAA application process to take long.
“But we have lawyers working on that now in Washington, D.C. We will be coming to Saipan immediately after we get FAA’s approval. Saipan is very important to our operations,” Banks said.
He also bared plans to ask Gov. Juan N. Babauta for help with the airline’s application with the federal government.
Eco Airlines hold a foreign air operators certificate from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
The carrier also has leased Russian Yakovlev Yak 42D aircraft from a Russian carrier, Karat Air, to service its flights. The aircraft has been configured to accommodate 60 passengers and 10 tons of cargo.
In an earlier interview, Banks said Eco Airlines will provide a combination of freight and passenger services. “The main emphasis really is on the freight service. But pure freight doesn’t work, so you have to put some passengers in to offset the economical costs,” he said.
He added that Eco Airlines will be providing a service transporting fresh Australian food products into all destinations and returning with fresh seafood for the Australian market.
