No AOC for Skyairworld, delay for Solomon Airlines

[Shagtastic]

A short interlude anyone?

http://stage6.divx.com/user/Neillith...i---Fallen-Art

[bigjet787]

You have it in one PLANEOZLOVER, it seems that velvethammer (DC aka the spin doctor) and the rest of his staff dont have anything to brag about so they have vanished. At least the 7:30 Report may have something actually worthy to air this time instead of a made up story by ex employees.

I think someone needs to ask who was the GM when these allegations supposedly happened? Yep thats right!!

At least SOLAIR now might have a chance to start making a profit again with Ozjet & Our Airline helping out. They are starting to get the right aircraft on the job.

One other option is Pacific Blue. This unfortunately is not viewed by some Pacific Nations as an option but it could group together a number of nations quite quickly with low overheads and a good fleet.

Either way Ozjet/Our Airline/Pacific Blue or some body else will get the job as SAW obviously can not make SOLAIR profitable, especially when you pay full price for half an aircraft

[ivan ellerbai]

Dug up some figures on departures from BNE in relation to Solomon Airlines flights after Capt. M's claims that OA are doing much of the work - seems to be true. Following flights using Solomon flight numbers:-

Saturday 11th service operated by Ozjet (OJ)
Sun. 12th service operated by Our Airline (OA)
Mon 13th - OA dedicated flight plus normal service via HIR to Nauru
Tue 14th - OJ (plus OA's normal service from HIR under OA flt number)
Wed 15th - OA
Thu 16th - Dedicated service by OJ plus OA's normal flight via HIR to Nauru,
Fri 17th - OA's normal service from HIR plus OA additional flight to HIR
Sat 18th - OA flight from HIR
Sun 19th - OA service

That's 6 dedicated services plus 2 normal services in their own right by OA, 3 services to OJ, none to Air Van.

It's easy to see where the help is coming from despite the claims in the papers to the contrary.

[teaki]

mate, doesnt matter how many powerful board they (solomon airlines) have, wont make any difference!!!!! as long as the mole is still there, wont do any difference. need to find the cause of the problem then they wil be able to fix it. mind you, solair um sure makes alot of money from what i gather from friends working there that not only the airfare is very expensive but domestic specially is making alot of monie from many pax travelling domestically and extra flights created to cater for the high demand!!!!!!!!!!!
and lets just hope the GM not making special bonding with the politician, specially the finance minister, gordon darcy!!!!!! decision makers still there!!! bingo!!!!

[Melanesian Blue]

Too right teaki……Mr Sumsum is the mole!
Sacking the board three times won’t do much if sumsum and his bum chums are still in the background.

Just received sources claiming Our airline is a lot cheaper to charter than the Skyairworlds E-170 jet on BNE-HIR-BNE route. Makes you wonder why this was not considered in the feasibility study, if ever there was one. The realistic thing for solair to do now is get rid of their international service entirely if they can. Hand the problem over to Our airline and not ozjet as for obvious reasons already debated about in this Forum. Also stop wasting Solomon taxpayers money and start investing it back into your domestic services where it belongs.

[ithinkso]

had the pleasure of meeting sumsum a while ago, the man is a gentleman, and is about as switched on as you can get. doubt the problem lies anywhere near him.
.

[cnic]

Sumsum a gentleman that is the funniest thing I have heard all day, he is there for himself and no one else ( his only there for that enormous paycheck and nice house in brisbane). I still can not believe that he was sold such a lemon though, I always thought he was a bit more switch on then that.

[ithinkso]

basically every expat that works for any airline,is there for themselves. thats why they leave the comfort of their own countries to look for the salaries they cant attract at home.

why would anybody go to the middle east? if they werent being compensated appropriately??

[JMara]

I have also met Sumsum,he comes across as a gentalman,seems switched on as you say but mate, he has not done his homework and has put Solair into a bigger mess than it already was in..........He being the only signature on the contract with SAW puts all responsibility on him.....no one else...........so you say switched on? I think not.I have just read on the local paper as well www.solomonstarnews.com that Solair is disputing the contract with SAW as they promised X amount of seats but only got 50 for the BNE-HIR sector........Sumsum needs to go!

[Melanesian Blue]

Expats there for themselves??

Most expats I know working for the airlines are genuine people. Meaning they actually care about the airline and hope to put something back into the job. There’s also a difference between being Compensated appropriately and excessively. By the way this is the pacific not the middle east.
The way I see it with other Solomon nationals is …….If you’re not performing then start packing your bags.

[ithinkso]

agreed, 100%. most pilots and management care about the airlines they work for, because if they dont, they will cease to work for said airlines.

i have no experience in working for a "small" airline, however, regardless of size, if quality people are needed, they must be paid for. regardless of location in the world. small airlines, in many instances have management that wear mutliple hats, so to speak. in a large organisation you have people to do just about anything,(pencil sharpening ladies), the smaller ones do not. therefore people who are charged with multiple duties should be paid accordingly.

if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys.

best wishes.

p.s.: if someone offered you more money, to do the job you're already doing, only a fool would knock it back,(no matter how excessive).

[capt moonlight]

Only a fool or someone with integrity. Not everybody is ruled by the dollar and some people even care. They like to think they give value for money to their employer

[Melanesian Blue]

if someone offered you more money, to do the job you're already doing, only a fool wo

He was Director of Operations for Air Vanuatu for less than a year before he moved to the Solomon islands. This is his first C.E.O job. So I’m not sure what sort of quality people you’re talking about….He may be a great pilot if that’s what your referring to but we only have to look under our nose to see what his discission to acquire the E-170 has done to the Solomon islands economy. I totally agree that if quality people are required they must get paid for. But “Quality people normally produce positive results” and that is yet to be seen.

[Sal-e]

I tend to agree that maybe the Solomon Islands should forget entirely about the pains of starting an airline from scratch together with all it's inherent risks.
Why do that to themselves when far bigger investments are beckoning? The Solomon Islands are one of the most beautiful places in the Pacific. Their tourist industry is yet to be properly tapped in to. They are mineral and numerous other resource rich. Restarting their airline will only be a source of corruption and a further loss of millions for them.
Another reason they should remain with Nauru's 737 is Taiwan's involvement with that whole deal. Taiwan was happy to finance Nauru's 737 with the possiblity of sharing it with the Solomons. How would it look to the Taiwanese if the S.I and Nauru weren't able to co-operate being a couple of the few remaining diplomatic partners they have? I dare say they'll only tighten the purse strings of aid. Maybe they should pipe in to encourage more cooperation.

[Animalclub]

Sal-e... are you saying that Megapode and Dennis Buchanan's Solair were right by concentrating on the domestic services within Solomon Islands and collecting a royalty from airlines taking up the international rights?

There's one or two problems with that... in that the carrier that operates the service controls the frieght load. FJ used to send freight BNE-HIR on the circuit BNE-SYD-NAN-HIR thus Solair didn't receive any royalties. Mind you, I've been informed that IE didn't receive any royalties on frieght or passengers at all . This could be wrong!

Sal-e, I reckon you are on the right track. The country is too small for the financial risks involved.

[ithinkso]

you see the thing is this:

there is no risk starting an airline in the solomons. the populatiion is large, they are resource rich and the biggest money spinner of all is the boys misbehaving. ramsi, has, and will be the saving grace of solomon airlines. the money they pump through the airline is truly massive.

when solomons first commenced with their own machine they had money in the bank courtesy of the australian government. a bit of financial mismanagement may have gone on, the wrong aircraft may have been chosen, but this still wont bring about the downfall of the airline. there is too much money being made anyway. its about cash flow.

as far as hooking up with OA, anyone with any experience in the area will know the solomon government wouldnt even consider it. im sure the nauruans would be more than happy to assist.

the difficulties follow:

as im sure you are all aware, the solomon islands government has signed the open skies policy. this means that basically any airline with the inclination can start operating to the solomons. they just need infrastructure to support their operations. at the moment only solomon airlines can provide this. if ie doesnt want to assist their competitors, the competitors must provide their own infrustructure, that is locally based staff.

virgin has looked at the route. jetstar is presently looking at then route. air vanuatu is looking at the route. air vanuatu, that has operated the route in the past made alot of money from it. air vanuatu has infrastructure very close by in the area.

remember soloms will have a difficult time finding a leasing company that will allow them to operate on anything but a cash up front basis. they parked up an ilfc machine a few years ago and the latest default with the 170 make the whole thing very risky for any decent sized leasing agent. for the lease of a single aircraft, they are reluctant, to take the risk that is involved with solomon airlines in particular. there are smaller leasing companies around but the smaller leasing companies tend to have much higher leasing costs than the biggies. economy of scale.

to lease their own aircraft economically means they will have to have their own crews. this is one of the largest investments. time for training is crucial. qantas wont touch them for training due to unpaid bills in the past. i am ignorant here, but are there any other classic version sims in australia apart form the qantas equipment.

to have their own crews, they will have to pay them accordingly, or they will simply leave once they have any time up on the machine. bonds do not work in the pacific. they crews will have to be expat, probably based in australia, which means higher expense.

as mentioned above these are all difficulties, not risks. the passenger base available, in theory, means solomon airlines should basically be running the entire region. nauru, kiribati, vanuatu. they have the position geographically. if they can get a decent aircraft, 737 300/400,nothing will stop them. not even political interference. there is simply too much money floating around.

who cares anyway.

[Melanesian Blue]

First of all Solomon airlines was developed with the hope to promote travel and tourism into the solomons islands. Not to promote ramsi boys misbehaving. Also Ramsi won’t be in the solomons forever so they are not the saving grace of solair.
I don’t really understand your open skies policy. Why is the minister for finance saying in the press they are looking at ways to stop competition from Our Airline on BNE-HIR-BNE route? Also why can’t Air Niugini uplift passengers from HIR-NAN-HIR with this so called open skies policy? We already have Two airlines servicing our routes so why don’t we utilise them?
As for your comments stating there is endless money floating around and we are resource rich? Well look around the corner at our northern most closes neighbour the Nauruans. They were also resource rich at one stage but made bad investments.
The truth is we cannot run an airline so as the New Solomon Airlines board chairman Rick Hou puts it “why should we own an international airline at all“.
“the international sector is an area where we can make money out of it without actually owning an airline.” “In my opinion, if we can’t manage it why should we?

Now he’s a man who puts national pride aside and uses a bit of common sense. And by the way I do care because I pay taxes not for people to misuse.

[Sal-e]

I must say that I'm glad that someone as high up as the chairman of the board, Rick Hou, has the sense and the nerve to even stutter something as obvious as that.
Hopefully, the days of overly ambitious and pie dipping Solair staff management types, consultants, and politicians are numbered in dealing with airline management.
Let the issue lay to rest with all benefitting from a single airline for that region. What Solair will miss out in employment will be gained in higher employment for the tourist industry and business.
Let OA handle what they're experienced and good at, a sound and safe operation of it's aircraft.
Finally, let all work together for the betterment of all. Money is to be made here.

[ringbinder]

The truth is we cannot run an airline so as the New Solomon Airlines board chairman Rick Hou puts it “why should we own an international airline at all“.

It's encouraging that a local has the gumption to go public with such a comment in this forum. From my business oriented viewpoint here, a lot of the locals feel this way but aren't yet ready to voice that opinion openly. But openly stated opinions are just what is necessary so that those with control of the purse strings make sure they understand the feelings and get it right this time. One local concern is that there will simply be another aircraft leased along the lines of the Spanish arrangement, albeit with a more regionally based operator, and consequently the dollars will continue to be bled away from the country whilst they pursue an independent airline operation. There are better options, and, for one, Captain Moonlight's notion of "by the region ....." etc needs to be carefully considered by the new Board along with any other viable options. To be hamstrung by "tunnel vision" in that having your own airline is the only solution is hardly a credible review of the debacle that has occured with SAW and the E-170 and making sure the same mistakes aren't repeated.
The opportunity exists for Solomon Airlines to become quite a player in the immediate region - but this will only occur if there is proper consideration, consultation and co-operation. The danger is that a quick fix (and ultimate further disaster) will be pursued in a face saving exercise.

[capt moonlight]

I see Solomons have cancelled flights again today. How long before commonsense prevails and a joint operation is set up to help stop the bleeding by all concerned