PACIFIC FLIER out of BNE finally.

[Andrew P]

Koror- Newly formed airline Pacific flier suffered a stumbling block in its bid to launch international flight services to the Philippines after the FAA refused to grant it a foreign air carrier's permit.

The FAA decision prompted the Palau-based carrier owned by Aviation Matters to suspend and defer its flight plans from Koror to Brisbane, Manila and Guam scheduled for January 12 launch due to ownership issues as found by the FAA, an airline executive said Monday.

"We are still waiting for the FAA's approval but unfortunately they wont be coming any time soon due to some technical and legal issues with them" says Eckert Seamans, Legal representative for the airline.

Pacific Flier Airline is supposed to start flight on January 12 using an Airbus A310-300 from Hi Fly-Transportes Aereos, S.A, a Portuguese-based leasing firm. But Continental Micronesia protested said application on grounds of ownership as effective control of the airline belongs to HiFly, a charter airline based in Lisbon Portugal.

The FAA said that while Aviation Matters, the holdidng company of Pacific Flier, is incorporated in Palau, majority of its owners are not citizens of the island making it a foreign controlled airline. Due to ownership issues, the operators permit was denied killing the airlines hope of flying the pacific skies under the current corporate regime.

"We already filed a petition to the FAA for an exemption to the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) for a foreign air carrier permit and they are pending resolution" says Seamans.

While the airline waits for its approval, they were prevented from selling airline tickets for the proposed destination until a permit is issued.

The leased aircraft (cn495) with registry CS-TEI is capable of accommodating 18 business and 176 economy passengers says Shane Styles, the airline’s marketing head.

"The Airbus 310 is supposed to arrived from Lisbon to Clark airport in Manila via Dubai tomorrow as it start scheduled flight to Koror" says Styles. One way fare from Clark has been pegged at $230 per person and $459 return, exclusive of government taxes.

Pacific flier scheduled departure every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from Palau to Manila Clark at 7:00 AM with arrivals at 10:35AM for a travel time of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Schedule for departures from Clark is every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday leaving at 5:40PM arriving Koror at 7:10PM Local time. It was then scheduled to leave for Brisbane in Australia and back to Koror before proceeding to Guam and back to Koror then Manila in that rotation.

Styles said that flyers were already circulated to travel agents in a 16-page brochure offering packages in Guam and Palau but the airline's booking engine was disabled by FAA preventing them to take online bookings.

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