THE PALAU STATION solved the cargo space problem of three clients in the tuna industry.

The three clients are PITI (Palau International Traders Inc.), PMIC (Palau Marine Industries Corp.) and KFC (Kuniyoshi Fishing Co.). Their dilemma: limited airline companies doing business on Palau. Because of this, several fishing boats could not go to other countries to offload their fish due to lack of cargo space on Palau.

Faced with that challenge, the Palau Station tied up with Continental Airlines (CO) to sponsor APA (Asia Pacific Airlines) cargo charters. The partnership addressed the growing demands of tuna export volume.

“The arrangement is for CO to move the cargo via APA from Palau to Guam and then tranship from Guam to its final destinations, which are Japan and USA via CO commercial aircrafts,” explained Ronnie Giman, Palau Station manager.

Naturally, solutions like this don’t come without its hitches. “At first, the venture was difficult as there are issues on the minimum and maximum capacity we can load into the aircraft,” added Giman, “then there’s freight cost, timing of fish delivery to the airport and aircraft delays, resulting in customer's claims.”

All the problems were resolved in due time. However, Giman is not one to rest on his laurels as he says, “We are still finding ways to further improve our service. We will continuously find ways to assist our clients the best way we can. We will not stop until we find the solutions to their needs,” promised Giman.