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By Barry Markowitz, Special to the Star-Bulletin
A new Boeing 737-800 sits on the tarmac at Honolulu
Airport last weekend. Polynesian Airlines will use the
jet on its new Honolulu-Samoa service, starting Saturday.

Polynesian Air restarts
Samoa service

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Polynesian Airlines on Saturday will resume the Samoa-Hawaii service it dropped a decade ago, running a 154-seat Boeing 737-800 twice a week between the Samoa capital, Apia, and Honolulu.

The airline, owned mostly by the government of the independent country formerly known as Western Samoa, flew to Hawaii in the early 1990s but in recent years has sent its Hawaii passengers aboard Air New Zealand, Qantas and Air Pacific flights under code-share agreements.

The airline said it negotiated a favorable lease for the new-generation Boeing 737-800, the same model aircraft that recently went into the Hawaii-Pacific services of Continental Micronesia and Fiji-based Air Pacific.

The Honolulu flights will leave Apia each Thursday and Saturday. The airline said the flights will make it more convenient for Hawaii residents to visit Samoa.

The airline's 737-800 is a new version of the Boeing 737 that flies farther, higher and with better fuel efficiency than earlier models. The plane passed through Honolulu Saturday on its way to its new owners.