Two new airlines have launched domestic passenger services in the Pacific nation of Tonga to fill the void created by last month's collapse of state-owned Royal Tongan Airlines, which is in liquidation.
Air Waves of Vava'u started operating on 9 June using a Douglas DC-3 chartered from New Zealand carrier Pionair Adventures. Pionair chief executive Tim Scott says Air Waves of Vava'u was started by a group of Tongan business people. He says this group is chartering the DC-3 for an initial three-month period to provide passenger services linking Tonga's main island Tongatapu with the outlying island groups of Ha'apai and Vava'u.
Tonga's other start-up, Fly Niu Airlines, was founded by four Tongans including the airline's chief executive, Atu Finau, who was previously engineering manager at Royal Tongan. His outfit began flying on 16 June using a Bombardier Dash 8 Q200 wet-leased from New Zealand's Air National and is competing on the same routes as Air Waves. Fly Niu plans to apply for an air operator's certificate so it can eventually operate the Dash 8 itself.
Tonga was left with no scheduled domestic passenger airline services when Royal Tongan collapsed. It closed its international operation in April when its Boeing 757-200 was repossessed. The domestic operation closed on 18 May because the carrier could not pay for spare parts for its Shorts 360 and de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.
The Auckland office of PriceWaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as liquidator.
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
