PAGO PAGO (Pacnews) — Congressman Faleomavaega Eni, D-American Samoa, says the reassignment by the International Civil Aviation Organization of control of airspace around Samoa from Fiji to New Zealand means agreements involving American Samoa must also be renegotiated.
The congressman met with Federal Aviation Administration officials over the weekend to discuss the changeover.
“There has been a great deal of misinformation and speculation surrounding this issue and I want to assure the public that the U.S. airspace surrounding American Samoa is not in jeopardy of being controlled by a foreign nation,” Faleomavaega said in a statement.
He said Fiji was delegated by ICAO to provide air traffic control services in the airspace around the sovereign airspace of Samoa and the U.S. airspace claimed through American Samoa.
“This came about by a multilateral agreement among Fiji, Samoa and the United States. Fiji has been involved because ICAO had delegated to Fiji the authority to provide this air traffic control. For more than a decade, Fiji has been delegated by ICAO with the authority to provide air traffic control services in the airspace,” he said.
“The ICAO is now proposing to reassign this authority from Fiji to New Zealand. This is only an administrative change related to international airspace and poses no threat to our sovereign airspace,” he added.
“When the ICAO agreement to re-delegate authority from Fiji to New Zealand takes effect in August, the agreement that has been in place between Fiji, Samoa, and the U.S. will also have to be renegotiated,” he said.
“It is my understanding that Samoa now wants to reclaim its airspace and this may mean that the U.S. will no longer have the authority to control aircraft in Samoan sovereign airspace,” Faleomavaega said.
