Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Pago Wings performed trial flights to the Manu'a islands last week.

These flights were specifically designated as test flights aimed at assessing payload capacities, and notably, passengers were on board during these assessments.

This meticulous testing process is crucial in gauging the aircraft's performance under various conditions and ensuring its readiness for operational flights with passengers, said a statement from the company.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Civil Aviation in Samoa, Olo Fiti Va'ai confirmed in a recent interview in The Samoa Observer that the American Samoa company, Pago Wings has yet to apply for an air service license.

Currently, Talofa Airways and Samoa Airways, which are Samoa owned are the only airlines operating the route between Pago Pago and Apia.

Samoa News stated earlier that Pago Wings hoped to begin offering charter flights on Nov. 1, 2023 while it applies for U.S. government approval for its scheduled air service.

Pago Wings is owned by businessman Papali’I Laulii Alofa with the company operating the charter flights under the Hawaii-based Pacific Air Charters Inc.

The Observer says the plane has flown twice to Manu’a just for familiarization, without landing at Ofu or Fitiuta airports, and the airline will do test flights before the start of its charter service.

AMATA WELCOMES GRANT FOR PACIFIC HORIZONS

Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is welcoming a recent notice of a grant of $56,250 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the Pacific Horizons School. The funds from the USDA Rural Development program are for transportation of healthy hot meals for the school, along with supplies and shuttling as needed, to provide a cost-savings and support student safety.

“Congratulations to Pacific Horizons School, home of the Navigators!” said Congresswoman Amata. “Thank you to school leadership, especially Caroline Tuiolosega, for this great job in applying and qualifying for these funds on behalf of the students. I know this practical assistance will make a difference in the services you provide. Thank you always to all our dedicated educators as they develop our future leaders.”

Congress funds USDA yearly through the appropriations process, and authorizes USDA efforts through the Farm Bill, recently extended by Congress for another year.

HAWAIKI INCREASES COMMERCIAL WAVELENGTHS

BW Digital, which owns the Hawaiki cables, yesterday announced the availability of commercial 400GbE services on the Hawaiki Transpacific Cable powered by Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution.

“Our recent upgrades with Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme put us in good stead to respond to ever-growing market requirements for international connectivity,” said Ludovic Hutier, CEO of BW Digital.

“Ciena and BW Digital have a long-standing relationship, and this is but one of many connectivity highlights that we hope to continue to bring to our customers.”

Leveraging Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, the 13,540km Hawaiki cable connects Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii, and the U.S. West Coast. With Ciena’s Waveserver 5, the Hawaiki cable can easily scale to meet the surging capacity needs of the most demanding cloud applications and data services, improve reliability and availability, and deliver lower latency connectivity between Oregon and Hawaii, the announcement from BW Digital says.

“Cable operators globally are always looking for ways to upgrade their cables to be faster, smarter, safer, and more open. Our GeoMesh Extreme is providing BW Digital an end-to-end network architecture, enabling the Hawaiki cable to deliver 400GbE services on its network, which is crucial in meeting the needs of today’s digital consumers, enterprises, and content providers,” said Thomas Soerensen, Vice President, Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena.

Hawaiki Transpacific Cable’s 400GbE service, deployed using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, was validated using EXFO’s multi-technology 400G Test Set, offering innovative Open Transceiver System and Intelligent Pluggable Optics test application. Results demonstrated smooth traffic and no latency impact across the Sydney to Hillsboro segment. BW Digital was supported by WWG Comtest, the EXFO partner in New Zealand, for the loan and technical support on the EXFO Test Set.

SWAINS IS. DELEGATE INVITED TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS

The U.S. Congressional Committee on Natural Resources has invited Swains Island Delegate Alexander Eli Jennings to testify on the following bill before its Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs that will hold a legislative hearing on Thursday, January 18, 2024, in Washington D.C.

H.R. 6062

Sponsored by Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata H.R. 6062 aims to restore the ability of the people of American  Samoa  to approve amendments  to the territorial constitution  based on majority rule in a democratic act of self-determination. This is authorized pursuant to an Act of Congress delegating administration of Federal territorial law in the territory to the President, and to the Secretary of the Interior under Executive Order 10264, dated June 29, 1951. Under this EO the Constitution of American Samoa  was approved  and may  be amended  without  requirement  for further  congressional action, subject to the authority of Congress under the Territorial Clause in article IV, section 3, clause 2 ofthe United States Constitution; and

The invitation was signed by Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, who chairs the subcommittee.