Tonga's Int'l Airport to corporatise in January [1]
Friday, August 11, 2006 - 19:13. Updated on Thursday, July 16, 2015 - 14:01.
Tonga's Fua'amotu International Airport will be managed by a private company, the Tonga Airports Ltd. (TAL), starting on January 1, 2007.
The new Minister for Transport, responsible for Civil Aviation, Marine and Ports, Hon Paul Karalus, said on August 10 that TAL, a government-owned company will be responsible for most of the operations at the airport, the air traffic control, security service, the maintenance and development of airports, and the fire services.
The ground handling of cargo will remain with the Airport Terminal Services.
"What we are planning to do is to give all the revenues generated from the landing fees, departure taxes, parking fees and concessions to the new airport company. The annual amount that we receive from the Air Corporation New Zealand for using the airspace that we control above Tonga will go into subsidising the smaller airports as well as to help run the Ministry," he said.
Paul said that a long term plan for TAL was to eventually take over the running of all airports in the country, but that could happen after the airports were upgraded.
He said that some of the outlying airports receive very limited number of movements of aircrafts, "in fact they would be losing money as it will cost more to keep them in operation, which is the case in the two Niuas, 'Eua and Ha'apai. On the other hand, Fua'amotu and Vava'u would be able to generate sufficient revenues to run themselves.
"We want to avoid the situation where the smaller outlying airports would be subsidised by Fua'amotu, therefore some mechanisms would be designed where the smaller ones would be subsidised by the Ministry."
Paul said that government had also been talking to the Chinese government for the development of the Lupepau'u Airport, Vava'u, to be able to take jet aircrafts, "but what should be done first is to ensure that Fua'amotu is fully operational at the highest level before looking at Vava'u," he said.