Since the beginning of the year, Air Tahiti Nui, French Polynesia’s national carrier, has been affected by continuous strikes. The situation might further destabilize an already fragile tourism sector.
PARIS- Three months, three strikes and a fourth one looming on the horizon: tourists who dream to see the famed islands of Bora Bora and Tahiti in French Polynesia- – might changed now their mind as the situation of air transport in the French overseas territory remains more shaky than ever. Last week, four days of strikes completely paralyzed Air Tahiti Nui, the main carrier to French Polynesia, blocking thousands of visitors. Air Tahiti Nui has been losing a lot of money in the last years despite subsidies provided by French Polynesia Territorial government. High fuel prices and high operation costs translated into a loss of € 8.7 million. In its sixteen years of existence, Air Tahiti Nui was only one year beneficiary in 2004, despite regular recapitalization by the authorities. According to an audit conducted to evaluate Air Tahiti Nui business, the airline accumulated losses of € 100 million.
The last strike followed a restructuring plan which would see the reduction of staff among various austerity measures. Last Friday, an agreement was finally signed between Air Tahiti Nui management and unions. But air transport is far of coming back to normal on the Island. Fire brigades have also called for a new strike starting this Wednesday. Such a movement will mean that safety cannot be assured at the airport forcing airlines to cancel flights.
Air Tahiti Nui is flying in duopoly with Air France but both airlines practice high fares between Paris and Papeete, a major handicap to attract more travellers. According to the French economic daily Les Echos, a return fare costs on average € 2,000 while it would be only € 1,300 for a Paris-Sydney flight. French Polynesia remains generally a very expensive destination. With most goods being imported from France, prices for food, drinks or other items are generally 40% more expensive than in France.
All of these elements are handicaps to further develop tourism to the group of Islands. Over the last decade, tourism has been hardly affected. From a peak of over 260,000 tourists in the early years of 2000, total arrivals passed under the 200,000 arrivals mark in 2008 and since then never reached again this figure. Last year, Tahiti welcomed 162,775 tourists, up by 5,75% over 2010. However, total arrivals are still down by over 26.5% compared to 2006.
The weakening of tourism in Tahiti translated into the closure of international hotels. In the last five years, seven hotels were closed, including the two Club Med of Moorea and Bora-Bora, Hilton Tahiti while the Sofitel Tahiti Maeva just announced to close definitely its doors next November as it lost over 20 million US dollars. Bed capacity at the end of 2011 stood at 8,064 units in 48 hotels. The peak in hotel capacity was reached in 2009 with 8,224 beds. Total air seats capacity to Tahiti was down by 3.1% between 2010 and 2011.
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.
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