French Polynesia national carrier Air Tahiti Nui is now looking at serving the Chinese and Korean market, supporting French Polynesian government priority to revive tourism.
PARIS – His voice is still not totally assured but it took only a couple of minutes to Michel Monvoisin, Air Tahiti Nui new CEO, to clearly expose the objectives of French Polynesia national carrier and its future perspectives. The niche airline carried last year close to 420,000 passengers to its four destinations out of Papeete (Auckland, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo) with its fleet of four Airbus A340-300. However, a niche carrier such as Air Tahiti Nui is an essential tool into the promotion and tourism development of French Polynesia, a minuscule French overseas territory lost in the midst of the Pacific Ocean and sparsely populated of 275,000 inhabitants. Especially as some of its islands such as Tahiti or Bora Bora have been capturing the imagination of the world for over a century…
Air Tahiti Nui was then born out of the will of the French Polynesian local government back to 1996 which has for many years covered its losses. But economic times are less rosy those days and French Polynesian authorities have also felt the pinch of the recession, especially as France has been cutting subsidiaries to its overseas territories. Air Tahiti Nui has then been embarked into a restructuring process which now translates into concrete results.
“We made some strategic mistakes in the past such as opening a direct flight to New York or in our fuel edging policy. However, we are again on the right track. We managed to generate in 2012 a profit of € 1.9 million in 2012 for a turnover of € 251 million. This is not a lot but they are not so many airlines which can claim a profit these days”, highlights Michel Monvoisin. The 2013 financial performance look rather good. The airline estimates to be able to generate a profit of € 10 million from a total turnover of € 260 million.
This strong improvement in financial performance can be attributed to a policy of codeshare with American Airlines and Qantas. “We have seen a strong improvement of our position in North America and Australia thanks to these alliances. Thanks to American Airlines, we even see now more passengers from New York than during the time we flew ourselves the route! And we also see a strong surge from Brazilian travellers to Polynesia. This is a trend that is likely to continue as American recently launched a non-stop route from Sao Paulo to Los Angeles”, stresses Air Tahiti Nui CEO.
While Air Tahiti Nui withdrew from Sydney, its code share with Qantas out of Auckland allows the carrier to offer Australian passengers easy connections from and to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. “We are stepping up our frequencies to Auckland that we now serve with three weekly flights. And we could further boost our presence all year around”, adds Mathieu Bechonnet, Air Tahiti Nui General Manager.
Next year will then see Air Tahiti Nui looking at new markets and consolidating its network. The airline is waiting for the approval from the US Department of Transport to put in place a joint venture with Air France between Paris and Los Angeles with connection to Papeete. “It will help us to position ourselves better in Europe thanks to a code-share on several European and French destinations. In return, Air France would then be able to put its airline’s code on our own evening flight between Charles de Gaulle airport and Los Angeles”, says Mathieu Bechonnet.
Among the new markets that Air Tahiti Nui is now studying is China and Korea. “We have of course a keen interest to see more upper class Chinese coming into French Polynesia. We are soon going to be in Beijing to talk with authorities to see how Tahiti could be better served from China PRC, either out of Shanghai or Beijing”, tells Michel Monvoisin.
An agreement could be found with a Chinese carrier to have it serving the route China-French Polynesia. “This could be ideal indeed. However we face a major hurdle with traffic rights. The Chinese government does still not recognize French Polynesia as a distinctive entity from France with full empowerment to negotiate traffic rights”. Air Tahiti Nui is also looking at ways to serve South Korea, a particularly good incoming market for honeymooners. “However, we could first start with connecting services from Narita Airport in Japan, as we envision to build up frequencies to and from Tokyo”, adds Air Tahiti Nui CEO.
The airline has no plans to upgrade for now its fleet, which was brought to new comfort standards last year with a new business class product including flat-bed seats. However, Air Tahiti Nui is now looking to boost its complementarity with French Polynesia domestic carrier Air Tahiti and been more active for the promotion of the archipelago as tourism is becoming a gain a priority for the local government. Synergies are evident: especially as Michel Monvoisin has been recently named as President of Tahiti Tourism and is due to enter soon into the board of directors of Air Tahiti…
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
