Samoa Airways has blamed "weather related issues" in Australia for disruptions and delays this week on its flight schedule. 

In a statement issued by the Airline, Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.), Tupuivao Seiuli Tuala, says the staff are working overtime to provide customer care and to ensure flights return to normal by Thursday. 

“My sincerest apologies to all customers affected by the flight schedule disruptions. While we can’t control the weather we can do better in responding and managing these major disruptions,” he said.

 “I want to acknowledge your valuable feedback and assure you that this incident has helped us identify key areas we need to work on and we are improving them by putting systems in place to manage these types of disruptions more effectively in the future.”

According the C.E.O., they are working to ensure all flights are back to normal by Thursday. This is done by coordinating and communicating in real time between central operations in Samoa, New Zealand and Australia, he says. 

“A charter flight has been confirmed this evening which will fast track a return to normal services,” says Tupuivao.

The C.E.O. acknowledges the disruption that has prompted the airline to re-evaluate their communication and operations systems. 

This follows customer feedback online where passengers voiced their frustrations on social media over the lack of timely notifications and response to urgent enquiries.   

“Since the weekend the airlines’ call centre reported they were flooded with calls causing system failure and phone lines to drop however IT issues have since been resolved with Samoa Airways looking at ways to further improve this service,” he explains.

In addition, Tupuivao acknowledges the valuable feedback and assured that this incident has helped identify key areas the airline needs to work on. 

“And we are improving them by putting systems in place to manage these types of disruptions more effectively in the future,” he said.

An extra team has been created to help monitor and manage congested customer enquiries with extended staff hours to provide after-hours customer service. 

The following is the statement from Samoa Airways in full:

Samoa Airways moves to normalise flight schedule and improve communication services.

 Recent flight disruptions arising from weather related issues in Sydney have caused ongoing delays this week to Samoa Airways Flight schedules which the airline is working hard to normalise by Thursday.

 CEO for Samoa Airways, Tupuivao Seiuli Alvin Tuala says all hands are on deck with staff working overtime to provide customer care, co-ordinate and communicate in real time between central operations in Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. A charter flight has been confirmed this evening which will fast track a return to normal services.

Tupuivao acknowledges the disruption has prompted the airline to re-evaluate their communication and operations systems following customer feedback online where passengers took to social media voicing their frustrations over the lack of timely notifications and response to urgent enquiries.

Since the weekend the airlines’ call centre reported they were flooded with calls causing system failure and phone lines to drop however IT issues have since been resolved with Samoa Airways looking at ways to further improve this service.

 “My sincerest apologies to all customers affected by the flight schedule disruptions” Tupuivao said “While we can’t control the weather we can do better in responding and managing these major disruptions.”

 “I want to acknowledge your valuable feedback and assure you that this incident has helped us identify key areas we need to work on and we are improving them by putting systems in place to manage these types of disruptions more effectively in the future.”

An extra team has been created to help monitor and manage congested customer enquiries with extended staff hours to provide after-hours customer service. All passengers are encouraged to check current flight schedules on Samoa Airways website and social media platforms. All contact numbers are currently working and listed below.

(Due to high volume of calls, the airline advises that should customers not get through it is recommended that they send an email to the address provided.)

 General Enquiries:

[email protected]

Samoa:

+685 22172

+685 22173

+685 7773716

Australia:

1800 359726

New Zealand 

0800 359726