Samoa departure tax now included in Samoa Airways ticket price

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Samoa Airways — owned by the Samoa government — is now including the Samoa airport departure tax of $65 Samoan tala, in the price of its airline tickets for travelers on the inter Samoa route from Apia to Pago Pago.

Privately owned carrier Apia-based Talofa Airways, is working toward the same goal to be put in place soon.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, American Samoa’s Attorney General, Fainu'ulelei Falefatu Ala'ilima-Utu announced that per the “outcomes” from the Atoa o Samoa meeting held April 12-13 in American Samoa, “it was agreed that travelers to American Samoa [from Samoa] will no longer pay departure taxes at the Samoa airport, but [it] will be incorporated into the airline ticket.”

“According to Minister Leatinuu Wayne Sooialo and CEO Fauoo Fatu Tielu of Samoa Airways, they have started putting the Samoa airport departure tax in airline tickets for customers traveling from Samoa to American Samoa,” he said.

Fainu’ulelei also said that Talofa Airways should be able to confirm its implementation date.

Talofa Airways confirmed yesterday that it was working on implementing this policy, which should be in place in the near future.

Travelers from Samoa in the past have complained of having to pay the departure tax at Faleolo International Airport before boarding the flight to Pago Pago while this is not done for travelers heading to other destinations.

And this resulted in this issue being discussed during the Atoa o Samoa talks hosted by the territory.

This is when it was clarified that the Samoa airport departure tax is paid by all passengers — it’s just in the case of travel to American Samoa, the two airlines, Talofa Airways and Samoa Airways did not include the tax in their airline tickets, which is what other airlines do, i.e. Air New Zealand, Fiji Air, etc.