Air Pacific Files For Honolulu-Christmas Island — Civil Aviation Forum

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Air Pacific Files For Honolulu-Christmas Island

MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31106 posts, RR: 74
Posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 3549 times:

Air Pacific has filed with US DOT to provide weekly non-stop service between Honolulu and Christmas Island, continuing to Nadi, with a 737 (-700 or -800) aircraft. It will be the only non-stop service between the two airports. What other airlines fly to XCH?

14 replies: All unread, jump to last

StevePER From Australia, joined May 2004, 74 posts, RR: 0
Reply 1, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 3434 times:

That doesn't sound very likely... Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean, there wouldn't be any demand for such a service, and a 737 couldn't make the distance anyway.

"You're like Icarus - always wanting to fly."

Mariner From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 22696 posts, RR: 88
Reply 2, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 3415 times:

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There are two Christmas Islands - one in the Indian Ocean, yes, and one in the Pacific, part of the old Gilbert and Ellis group, I think.

http://www.fishdive.com/christmas_island.htm

cheers

mariner

[Edited 2005-07-14 02:14:57]

aeternum nauta

Ha763 From United States of America, joined Jan 2003, 3492 posts, RR: 6
Reply 3, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 3357 times:

The code for Chirstmas Island (Kiritimati) is CXI. And yes it is in range for the 737. In fact, AQ used to do weekly HNL-CXI charters using a 737-200 that was certified for ETOPS (N808AL) and then using their 737-700s. I'm not sure if AQ still flies those charters to CXI.

On a side note, properly prounounced, Kiritimati sounds very similar to Chirstmas, hence they ended up being called Christmas Island.

PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10
Reply 4, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 3274 times:

Christmas Island in the Pacific is also the site of perhaps the most unreal experience on the planet - the great migration of crabs off the island to the sea.

http://www.christmas.net.au/

Click on the welcome, and the first page you will see has a small picture of the crabs entering the sea. Absolutely unbelieveable. If I'm not mistaken, there's also a National Geographic special on this. Worth checking out!

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Mariner From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 22696 posts, RR: 88
Reply 5, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 3258 times:

Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 4):
Christmas Island in the Pacific is also the site of perhaps the most unreal experience on the planet - the great migration of crabs off the island to the sea.

Um - the link you provided is to Christmas Island/Indian Ocean, not Pacific?

cheers

mariner

aeternum nauta

NZ747 From New Zealand, joined Dec 2004, 958 posts, RR: 4
Reply 6, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 3176 times:

Quoting MAH4546 (Thread starter):
...with a 737 (-700 or -800) aircraft.

They will be using the -700.

PRGLY From Czech Republic, joined Dec 2004, 494 posts, RR: 1
Reply 7, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 3110 times:

So FJ will fly to CXI, any chance they will start Tarawa to compete ON

just fly - it is nice

Je89_w From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 2327 posts, RR: 10
Reply 8, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 3103 times:

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PHOTO SCREENER

Nice to see FJ starting up this new route! With the B73G too!

Quoting Ha763 (Reply 3):
I'm not sure if AQ still flies those charters to CXI.

AQ stopped flying into CXI almost a year ago, or around that time.

The Christmas Island in the Indian ocean is south of Indonesia, belonging to Australia (used to be owned by Singapore).

Andahuailas From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 137 posts, RR: 0
Reply 9, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 3095 times:

Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 4):
Christmas Island in the Pacific is also the site of perhaps the most unreal experience on the planet - the great migration of crabs off the island to the sea.

Wrong, that Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean, the one in the Pacific is also known as "Kiritimati"

Vxg From United States of America, joined May 2004, 102 posts, RR: 0
Reply 10, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 3069 times:

Kiritimati was originally named Christmas Island by Capt. James Cook who discovered it on Dec 24th 1777. The island is part of the Republic of Kiribati which consists of three groups of islands in the central pacific - the Gilberts (Kiribati) group, the Phoenix Group and the Line Islands (where Christmas Island is located).

The main airport is Cassidy Airfield which was originally built by the British who occupied the island until the country's independence in 1979. I believe that the US also operated on the island during WWII. During the 50's and 60's the island was used for some questionable bomb testing. There are a couple of other abandoned strips on the island that were built during WWII but they are clearly not usable today.

Air service to CXI has been spotty at best over the years. During the late 70's and early 80's when I lived in Kiribati (on Tarawa though) the local airline (Air Tungaru at the time) chartered a jet from Air Nauru to run service to the island (TRW-CXI-HNL and return). Later on Air Tungaru managed to get their own 727 for the flight but eventually they disappeared. Since then the government of Kiribati has arranged charters from HNL to handle air service to CXI. AQ was the most recent airline from which jets were chartered for the service.

My guess is that the government of Kiribati may be subsidizing Air Pacific to do the flight in order to keep some essential air service going to Christmas Island.

Words like Kiribati and Kiritimati are just the local spellings/pronunciations for western names like 'Gilberts' and 'Christmas'. They only use 16 Latin characters so 'K' is used for 'c' and 'g' sounds, 'R' for 'l', 'TI' for 's', etc. Say Gilberts really fast a few times and it'll start sounding like 'kiribas'. Smile

An excellent reference for Kiribati and the various islands in the area is Jane's Kiribati Homepage - http://www.janeresture.com/kirihome/index.htm

Hope this info helps answer some questions,
VxG

Dogfighter2111 From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2004, 1968 posts, RR: 1
Reply 11, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 3055 times:

Hey,

Heres a few links:

http://www.janeresture.com/christmas/

http://www.world66.com/australiaandpacific/kiribati/kiritimatiisland

Thanks
Mike

MidnightMike From United States of America, joined Mar 2003, 2892 posts, RR: 16
Reply 12, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 2953 times:

Quoting StevePER (Reply 1):
That doesn't sound very likely... Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean, there wouldn't be any demand for such a service, and a 737 couldn't make the distance anyway.

There is a Christmas Island in the Pacific as well, you know, the one where Godzilla used to hang out!!!

NO URLS in signature

Gemuser From Australia, joined Nov 2003, 5216 posts, RR: 6
Reply 13, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 2952 times:

Quoting Je89_w (Reply 8):
The Christmas Island in the Indian ocean is south of Indonesia, belonging to Australia (used to be owned by Singapore).

Well not exactly. Between 1946 and 1957 it came under the jurisdiction of the British Crown Colony of Singapore. So it is more accurately described as owned by Britian. In 1957 it was purchased by Australia, under whos juristriction it remains.

Gemuser

DC23468910;B72172273373G73873H74374475275376377L77W;A319 320321332333343;BAe146;C402;DHC6;F27;L188;MD80MD85

LatinAviation From Ireland, joined Nov 2003, 1276 posts, RR: 17
Reply 14, posted (7 years 10 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2785 times:

Here are some photos from when AQ flew there:
http://www.pbase.com/aqohana/cxi

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