Islands Business - Aviation: BACK TO BASICS FOR SUMSUM

Veteran ni-Vanuatu pilot heads Solomon Airlines

Samisoni Pareti
Mentoring scheme, a new leased aircraft and an imminent refinancing package coincided with the appointment of Solomon Airlines’ new chief executive officer.

Captain Ron Sumsum (left)... “I believe we had gone off the radar on some of the basics of running an airline."

Captain Ron Sumsum takes over from Joseph Anea, whose contract was terminated by the airline’s board in March.

A ni-Vanuatu, Sumsum was chief pilot of Solomons’ international carrier until his appointment.

Interviewed over the telephone at his Hibiscus Avenue office in Honiara last month, Sumsum was very clear on the direction he wanted to take the airline in the next 12 months, at least.

“My aim is to deal with the very basic things first,” said Captain Sumsum.

“In this way, I will work at rebuilding a commercial strong business culture in the airline.

“I believe we had gone off the radar on some of the basics of running an airline which has resulted in a culture that is not conducive to business.

“So it has been back to the drawing board for us in the last few weeks.”

Training forms a huge part of his strategy to get the fundamentals right at Solomon Airlines. Specifically, it is a mentoring scheme, where experienced and capable professionals are recruited by the airline to form the management core and mentor at the same time their young, local employees.

Along this line, Sumsum said he has lured several of his former colleagues from Air Vanuatu to take up management positions with Solomon Airlines.

The man himself was director of operations for Air Vanuatu for five years and was its chief pilot too.

“This team of professionals will assist in rebuilding the airline. I’m of course very mindful of the fact that this is the flag carrier of the Solomon Islands so we are only doing this with the full participation of Solomon Islanders in the airline.

“One day, my colleagues and I would leave which is why it is very important that we have this good training programme in place.”

Sumsum’s mentoring scheme began just as the airline took delivery of its newly leased Embraer 170 aircraft.
Leased from Australia-based Sky Airworld, the aircraft will service its new Brisbane/Espiritu Santo/Honiara/Brisbane service on Wednesdays and Brisbane/Honiara/ Espiritu Santo/Brisbane on Sundays. It will also fly to Fiji once a week.

The E170 is the first of its type to be flying in the Oceania region and replaces the Boeing 737-300 the airline had wet leased from a Spanish company.

The ni-Vanuatu head of Solomon Airlines has also secured what some of his local predecessors had been unable to deliver; securing a refinancing package from the main and only shareholder of the airline; the Solomon Islands Government.

“This is not a bail-out intervention but a proper capital assistance programme.

“They are not just going to give us a lump sum to play with but we have offered the government various options and the different scenarios such options will create.

“We are calling it a capital assistance programme because the money will be paid to us over the next four years.

“The airline is mindful of the massive rehabilitation exercise brought about by the April 2 tsunami,” Sumsum said.

But he said the government has been very cooperative and they hope to finalise the package very shortly. He would not disclose the size of the reinvestment.

On competition on the Brisbane/Honiara route with Nauru’s sponsored Our Airline, Sumsum said Solomon Airlines welcomed competition.

“If the government of Solomon Islands allowed Our Airlines into our route because it wanted to grow the economy, we have no quarrels with it.

“But we aren’t going to spend a lot of time worrying about competition.

“Rather, we will look at ourselves and see ways we can increase our own efficiency, increase our reliability and getting our fundamentals right.”

Sumsum added that Solomon Airlines’ new philosophy was to look at operators like Our Airlines, Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu and Air Pacific as “partners,” and not as competitors.