The most important island in French Polynesia and part of the world the place tourism is considerably set again by its remoteness, Tahiti is served primarily by its flag provider airline of Air Tahiti Nui, Air France (AFLYY) , and Hawaiian Airways.
Earlier this month, United Airways (UAL) revealed plans to extend the frequency of the flight between San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO) and Faaʼa Worldwide Airport (PPT) within the Tahitian capital of Papeete.
Launched in October 2018, the flight can be elevated to every day by the summer season of 2026, as noticed in regulatory route requests by aviation tracker Aero Routes.
The flight presently runs 5 occasions a 12 months on a Boeing 787-9 (BA) Dreamliner widebody jet, and vacationer numbers to Tahiti from North America have elevated steadily since nosediving through the Covid pandemic.
The principle airline of Tahiti to chop flight from Seattle
Even so, the 263,766 worldwide arrivals visiting Tahiti in 2024 remains to be a quantity too low to justify working a lot of flights. As first reported by AirlineGeeks, main provider Air Tahiti Nui will run its final flight to Papeete from Seattle on January 31, 2026.
The path to Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA) was first launched in October 2022 and presently runs twice every week on Wednesdays and Sundays.
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The airline had beforehand bought seats on the flight up till April 2026 and, as confirmed to the outlet, will contact those that paid for tickets on the canceled route with rebooking or refund choices.
After the cancellation, the flight between Papeete and Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) would be the provider’s solely service to the US. That route has run since 1998 on an Airbus A340-300 (EADSF) , whereas the Boeing 787-9 used for the Seattle flights has 30 enterprise class, 32 premium financial system, and 232 financial system class seats.
Air Tahiti Nui is the flag provider for the French Polynesian territory.
Picture supply: Shutterstock
Air Tahiti Nui “acknowledges the impact of this decision on travel plans’
“The airline acknowledges the affect of this resolution on the journey plans of shoppers holding reservations on flights scheduled to function past January 31, 2026, and desires to thank them for his or her understanding and loyalty,” Air Tahiti Nui said in a statement.
“Clients holding a ticket issued for one in all these flights can be provided the selection of rebooking at no extra value through Los Angeles on dates as shut as attainable to their authentic journey dates and in the identical journey class […or a] full refund of the issued and unused tickets.”
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Those who booked directly with Air Tahiti Nui will be contacted by the airline, while anyone who booked through a travel company or agent has been told to go through where they made the payment.
Beyond alluding to a network rerouting (the Los Angeles route will continue to run between seven to 11 times a week, depending on the season), Air Tahiti Nui has not commented on the reasons for the cancellation.
However, due to its distance from both North America and Europe, the French Polynesian territory has not experienced the same spike in tourism as other tropical destinations like Jamaica, Aruba and Bali.
Visitor numbers trended steadily upward but have not skyrocketed in a way that would justify flights from different cities for a smaller airline.
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