Continental Threatens Airfare Hike Over Marshall Islands' Tower

An impasse between Continental Airlines and the Marshall Islands National Telecommunication Authority (NTA) is likely to force the airline to increase airfares to Marshall Islands, Yokwe Online reports.

The airline wants the NTA to lower a cell phone tower located at the east end of Majuro International airport.

For safety and efficiency reasons, the tower can be no higher than 92 feet above the mean sea level, according to Continental and U.S. Federal Aviation (FAA) officials.

If the 108 feet tower is not lowered, Continental, the only airline carrier to Hawaii, will raise its rates by 4 percent, beginning the first of June due to payload restrictions for take-offs.

"This unnecessary raise in airfares will negatively impact personal travel, medical travel, business travel, and government travel each and every year," said chamber president Jack Niedenthal in a letter to NTA last week.

In a 14 April memorandum, Walter Dias of Continental Micronesia said the current height and location of the tower continues to impact on the allowable payload for flights between Majuro and Honolulu, causing customer inconvenience and costing revenue.

The Marshall Islands Journal reported that NTA's General Manager, Tony Muller, said he's concerned that lowering the tower would affect cell phone services in the area.

The NTA recently signed up its 3,000th cell phone customer, giving the Marshalls 100 cell phones per 1000 residents.

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