AIRLINE IMPASSE WILL WAIT FOR NEW SOLOMON ISLANDS GOVERNMENT

Solomon Airlines aircraft at the Honiara International Airport. Photo credit: SIBC.

Solomon Airlines aircraft at the Honiara International Airport. Photo credit: SIBC.

Solomon Islanders will wait until a new government is elected to re-negotiate a settlement of the three months aviation impasse with Fiji.

A delegation of senior government officials from Honiara was in Suva last week to thrash out pending issues with their Fiji counterparts.

The meeting went well and officials were on the verge of signing a Joint Memorandum of Understanding when Honiara informed its officials not to initial any agreement.

Resolving the on-going deadlock on landing rights between the two national airlines, Solomon Airlines and Fiji Airways was amongst a host of issues in the draft MOU between the two governments.

An official who spoke to PACNEWS on condition of anonymity says in the proposed MOU both sides agreed in principle to lift the ban imposed on their national airlines not to land in each other’s international airport.

The official says, for Solomon Islands case, it might be after the national elections on 19 November when a new government is elected, before re-negotiations continue.

All international flights between Honiara and Fiji were suspended indefinitely on 15 July this year after both governments accuse each other of breaching their air services agreement.

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