In three years, the Los Angeles-based company has become the dominant consolidator for tuna and other supplies on American Samoa, and has captured an estimated 80 percent of the air freight forwarding market in this American territory.
CII is now transporting supplies on a regular, scheduled basis for tuna fishing fleets and canneries to ports, such as Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Majuro & Manuro in the Marshall Islands; Haniara in the Solomon Islands; and Pohnpei, Micronesia.
'Since service to these islands, with the possible exception of Port Moresby, is so sporadic, schedules must be drawn up well in advance to ensure a smooth consistent supply chain stretching 10,000 miles from the U.S. deep into the South Pacific,' said Tony Feist, director of CII's tuna division.
Feist said that when emergency supplies are to be rushed to the islands, a combination of scheduled and chartered flights must be arranged. Since air service to the islands is infrequent, emergency supplies are flown to Port Moresby on scheduled airlines with private planes chartered to reach their final destination, he explained.
