By Staff Writer
One repatriation flight for returning Samoans is allowed to land this week on Saturday 12 February 2022 from New Zealand.
The travelers on board were originally booked on Air New Zealand before the Auckland-Faleolo flight was cancelled for 22 January 2022.
Government was forced to stop the scheduled flight shortly after 10 passengers tested positive for the COVID 19 virus on a chartered flight from Brisbane, Australia.
The Qantas flight on Wednesday 19 February 2022, brought in 73 passengers of which 25 have so far tested positive for the virus and are in isolation while under quarantine.
Six frontline nurses who were providing health care for the isolated passengers have been infected also for an overall total of 31 confirmed cases from the ill-fated flight.
A small aircraft flight scheduled to fly home stranded Samoans from American Samoa will be the second only passenger flight allowed to land at Faleolo International this month.
American Samoa bound travelers will finally return home on that flight after a long wait and will included among them workers from New Zealand who have been stranded in Apia since last December 2021.
All together 5 flights have been approved in the coming weeks, 3 are inbound with cargo only but are allowed with passengers along with cargo on the outbound.
The first of the scheduled flights arrived yesterday, Saturday 5 January, 2022 for cargo only flying in and out again.
The flights set for the 16 and 19 February are allowed only to fly in cargo but to include passengers when it flies out with cargo from Samoa.
There have been no official announcements of any flights scheduled from Australia either to bring in cargo only or with passengers included.
The virus-invested flight of Wednesday 19 January 2022 from Australia landed the most number of people to be tested positive for the virus as a group in Samoa.
A call by the deputy leader of the HRPP opposition party for a Commission of Inquiry into the flight has not received any firm response from Government.
The Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa did reveal in Parliament last week a group suspected of not meeting travel requirements on the flight.
The new arrivals made the trip allegedly to attend a funeral, which was not allowed under health travel restrictions to Samoa.