The Samoan airline, Polynesian Airlines, suffered a nine percent cut in passenger numbers in the October-to-December quarter of 2010.
Its CEO, Taua Fatu Tielu, says it is a big reduction compared to the number of passengers they flew in the same quarter of 2009.
Taua says this drop may be attributed to the downturn in the economy of American Samoa, from where most of the passengers come as well as the impact of the rival carrier Inter-Island's bigger plane introduced in December.
But he says increased inter-Samoa travel after the 2009 tsunami boosted passenger numbers in the October-to-December quarter of 2009.
