Manu slams Fiji Airways

The Manager of Manu Samoa, Namulauulu Sami Leota, is not a happy traveller.

And he has reason to.

Three days away from the team’s opening game of the Pacific Nations Cup against the United States, Manu Samoa has not been able to train because the players’ bags have not yet arrived at their destination.

“To say that we are disappointed is an understatement,” Namulauulu wrote in an email he copied to the Samoa Observer.

Namualuulu is so unhappy he has even raised the matter with rugby’s governing body, World Rugby.

“They must be aware of this and hopefully do not book any team bookings with the same airline going forward.”

Upon receiving the email from Namualuulu yesterday, the Samoa Observer contacted Fiji Airways for a comment through its Public Relations Manager, Shane Hussein.

Mr. Hussein was on leave but the questions were referred to two other airline officials, Jessan Doton and Angeline Lal.

“Bula Keni,” responded Doton.

“Thanks for sending this through.

Please allow us to get back to you on this soon.”

Last night, a statement from Acting Chief Executive Officer, David Bowden, said Fiji Airways places safety first.

Having said that, the Airline was deeply sorry about what happened.

“We are aware of this constraint and our executive team is drawing up best solutions to address this,” Mr. Bowden said.

“With this said, Fiji Airways sincerely apologises to the Manu Samoa team for the inconvenience this has caused, and hope our safety culture is understood in the spirit it is intended.”

According to Namualuulu, the team had arrived into their hotel at San Francisco on Tuesday night after nearly two days of travelling.

The team left Samoa via Fiji on Monday.

“May I note my frustrations with the service of Fijian Airways,” Namualuulu said. “The booking for our flight was done sometime ago and they were fully aware of the 46 pax of our team to travel via Nadi to US, yet they send a small plane that was unable to carry all our luggages.

“We contacted their Apia office the day before we left if we can check in our luggage direct to LA but said we will have to check it out of Nadi and check in again as we will be transiting for more than 6 hours.

“In which case players did not prepare take spare change for the long haul flight.”

Namualuulu said there was absolutely no prior warning that the team’s luggage will be offloaded.

“If that was the case, we would have gotten the boys to carry some training gears so that we are able to carry on with our training schedule in preparation for the weekend game but not to miss two days of training because of the airline poor and inconsiderable service,” said Namualuulu.

“We were just told after boarding in Apia that about 37 pieces of our luggage will be offloaded but they said not to worry as it will get to us in LA on the same day we arrive as it will be put on Air NZ next flight out, which is not true as the luggage had just left Apia today.”

In Los Angeles, Namulauulu said they had made several phone calls to Suva to try and find out what was going on.

“We have made several phone calls from LA to Suva since arrival tracing our luggage and left our phone numbers with Airlines and promised they will return the call but now its past midnight in USA now and have heard nothing from them,” he said. “Ridiculous service I should say.”

According to Mr. Bowden, weight restrictions meant the team’s bags could not be taken.

“The Manu Samoa team flew with Fiji Airways from Apia to Los Angeles via Nadi on the 13th of July,” Mr. Bowden explained.

“Due to weight restrictions on the ATR72 aircraft allowing for a reduced safe take-off weight, unfortunately 33 of their 47 pieces of luggage had to be offloaded in Apia.

“The bags were uplifted to Nadi from Apia on the next flight and subsequently on to Los Angeles on last night’s flight.

“Fiji Airways has the safety of all its passengers at the heart of everything we do and thus, while there are limitations on the amount of luggage that this aircraft can carry, we will only allow the weight approved for safe service.”

In hindsight, Namulauulu said the problems could have been avoided if the team’s booking was for the Apia/Auckland/San Francisco direct route.

This is “in view of the players welfare and to avoid long hours of waiting although costing could have been a major consideration of using Fiji Airways.”