MAJURO — A new United States Postal Service mail charter service to Guam began flying through Majuro twice daily earlier this week, a development that Majuro officials believe will impact the USPS’s move to change the Marshall Islands from a domestic mail zone to an international designation.
The USPS claims it is losing millions of dollars providing mail service to the Marshall Islands at domestic rates-–which are three-to-four times less than international charges-–while business and government leaders in the Marshall Islands say the proposed change will have a dramatically negative impact on the private sector that relies heavily on postal service to import products from the U.S.
The postal service is one of several agreements that are currently being renegotiated along with U.S. funding under a Compact of Free Association with the Marshall Islands.
A U.S.-based charter company, Custom Air Transport, won a new contract to deliver mail to Guam from Honolulu on a daily basis and began service this week. Its Boeing 727 is using Majuro as a refueling stop twice daily to and from Guam, but carrying no mail to the Marshall Islands. The flights last week were only 35 percent full with Guam-bound mail, according to officials at the airport.
“This throws a whole new light on the postal situation,” said Marshall Islands Compact negotiator Robert Muller.
USPS apparently had the new charter deal in the works but didn’t inform Marshall Islands negotiators when it laid its ultimatum on the line last month in Washington about the need to switch from domestic to international rates to halt what USPS officials claim to be spiraling losses, Muller said.
“We’ve invited (USPS official) Leo Tudela to come to Majuro to sit down and talk about the options,” Muller said. USPS, which is paying $2.2 million annually to charter once-a-week mail service to Majuro, has not looked at all its options to reduce costs, Muller said.
The new Guam mail service now offers the first charter service competition on the route to Majuro. Currently, Asia Pacific Airlines is under USPS contract to fly mail into Majuro from Guam and Hawaii. The USPS charters the entire flight at a weekly cost of about $40,000, according to postal officials. Muller said that USPS continues to pay this fee despite the fact that Asia Pacific now exports substantial amounts of tuna from Majuro on the mail flights.
