Air Tahiti Nui Reports Passenger Growth of 34% in First Half of 2004.

LOS ANGELES -- Air Tahiti Nui, the international airline of Tahiti and her Islands, announced today that its passenger volume jumped by 34% in the first half of 2004 compared to the similar period in 2003. Capacity grew by 29%, resulting in a load factor gain of 2.2 points to 61.1%.

The airline noted that the increase in capacity was due to the addition of the third and fourth Airbus A340-300 aircraft to its fleet. The gain in the first half of 2004 followed a large system-wide expansion in 2003 when, for the full year, Air Tahiti Nui's capacity grew by 69% compared to 2002 as the airline acquired two A340s in 2003, the year it inaugurated Los Angeles to Paris nonstop flights.

From 2001 to 2003, the number of passengers carried increased from 113,000 to 397,000 and for the first half of 2004, Air Tahiti Nui carried 214,000 passengers.

Currently for the peak 2004 summer season, the airline is offering 14 weekly flights from Los Angeles to Papeete, Tahiti's capital and the airline's main base. In addition, Air Tahiti Nui operates 6 weekly nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Paris. From Papeete, the carrier also flies to Auckland, Tokyo and Osaka, and offers code-share flights on QANTAS between Auckland and Australia.

On July 6th, 2005 Air Tahiti Nui will launch the first ever nonstop flights between New York and the South Pacific with 3 weekly flights to operate to Papeete, shaving 4 hours off the current elapsed time between New York and Tahiti. Two of these flights will continue to Sydney as Air Tahiti Nui will simultaneously launch nonstop services between Papeete and Sydney when the New York service begins next July.

"We are targeting the East Coast of the United States which has a population of nearly 70 million people with our ground-breaking new nonstop flights," said Wally Sumner, Air Tahiti Nui's Vice President-North America. "As New York is the principal gateway to Europe, our new route will also provide a shortened and simplified journey to Tahiti and her Islands for a large market of potential visitors from Europe," he added.

Sumner pointed out that for the calendar year 2003, Air Tahiti Nui achieved its full year profit of $3.8 million versus a loss of $700,000 for 2002. He also noted that since 2002, Air Tahiti Nui has had a positive cash flow and no longer receives any subsidy from the Government of French Polynesia. He further stated that the Company had a positive financial position of $44.5 million in capital and equity of $83 million at year-end 2003.

For more information about Air Tahiti Nui's services and flight schedules, the public is invited to call the Reservations Center at [phone] or visit the airline's web site at http://www.flyatn.com.