Nauru's airline introduces new freight service

Transcript

Nauru's national airline carrier is introducing a new freight service to keep up with growing demand created by Australia-run asylum seeker camps on the island.

The carrier is also rebranding from Our Airline to Nauru Airlines.

The airline's chief executive, Geoff Bowmaker, says a weekly freight flight will begin on August 1st with the introduction of a new freight-only aircraft.

Mr Bowmaker spoke to Amelia Langford, who began by asking about the reasons behind the name change.

GEOFF BOWMAKER: The airline itself has been in operation for more than 40 years and there is a proud history of course with the previous Air Nauru and we felt it was appropriate at this stage given a lot more activity that we are involved in on Nauru - more flights - we are operating out of Australia now four times a week as opposed to the previous once or twice weekly so there is a lot more activity and it is just appropriate at this stage we feel to bring back a little bit of the longer history - reconnect the airline with its country of origin because we are really there to service the needs of the people of Nauru, that is our prime focus and we do that in association with servicing the region as well.

AMELIA LANGFORD:Now I see that there is a new freight service?"

GB:  Nauru imports everything, virtually everything, and so with the passenger aircraft and the freight capability given that the flights are a lot fuller these days. So there is certainly a need for freight uplift from main centres like Australia, Fiji, the Marshalls, into Nauru where there are products available that Nauru is seeking and we just weren't able to cope with the volume and the demand that was growing constantly with the passenger aircraft. So we have acquired an all-freighter aircraft. It is again a 7373-00 so we are maintaining commonality in our fleet but this is an all-freight aircraft. It will enter service on the first of August and it is the first aircraft that will have the new branding painted on the side of the aircraft. So we have got bookings solidly on that first flight, on the Friday the first of August already so we know it will be well utilised. The initial flight will be once a week and then we will just grow from there.
Nauru of course has the regional processing centre, or the refugee processing centre, in accordance with the Australian policy on offshore processing. That has created a lot more activity on Nauru and people needing to get to and from Nauru to service that centre so the busyness has a lot do with the setting up of that but also Nauruans and other people in general are finding an ability to travel a lot more.