Tonga charters flight for 59 stranded athletes

Why spend 250,000 dollars chartering a flight when the MA60 is sitting on the ground and Samiu Viapulu has the team trained and ready to fly, Sam and the other pilots could easily have done a couple of trips to PNG and saved Tonga a 150k ... it's absolutely shameful Tonga has let outside forces dictate to ground a perfectly good aircraft, indeed it should be running to Vava'u and back every day for a one way fare of $170, the numbers have been done and this figure is true and correct. Vava'u needs low cost airfares, and the Only way that is going to happen is with the Government owned MA60, run by Samiu Viapulu as (Royal Tonga) and keep fares down with a lean mean operation. The only way Real Tonga can keep all their vehicles we see running around, offices and a huge number of staff, about 60 I'm told, is to charge huge airfares, these excessively high airfares are killing the economy. I was told Real Tonga CEO was only prepared to pay 80,000 a year to the 60 seater MA60 Captains, yet he is paying over 100,000 to 18 seater Palangi Jet Stream Captains, talk about killing the MA60 which many experienced people in aviation say is The Only way Tonga will see low domestic fares .... the MA60 if loaded and flown correctly is a perfectly safe aircraft, let Samiu and his Royal Tongan team fly and bring on some real competition ....

Just to digress slightly and to follow the MA60 comments - I have a few points to make..

Firstly - as you will all know I am a huge fan of Tonga, Aviation and been a very vocal supporter of the MA60. Have flown on it and would love to see it grace the Tongan sky with Sam in the hot seat again, but In regards to cheaper airfares I think we need to remember one rule that is true the world over:

There are three kinds of service: Good – Cheap – Fast. - but you will only ever get a combination of any two.

If it’s fast and good, it won’t be cheap.
If it’s good and cheap, it won’t be fast.
If it’s fast and cheap, it won’t be good.

I think that RealTonga do a great job in a very hard aviation market - with the organisation running the operation with good reliability and good frequency.

It is not only locals that want to travel to Vava'u. We have thousands of tourists that want to hop off their international flight and know - with some confidence - they will make their domestic flight. That comes at cost.

Having personally experienced the poor dispatch reliability of the old Royal Tonga, Peau Vava'u and Airlines Tonga - I would easily say the damage done to the economy was higher than those caused by a higher airfare but improved reliability which we have seen with Chathams and RealTonga.

Some questions below -
Do we want a service that is reliable, with good frequency and good dispatch reliability (but costs more)

or

Do we want a service that is cheaper, with reduced frequency but runs the risk of lower dispatch reliability (but costs less)

Either of these models can apply to any aircraft from either airline (RealTonga or Royal Tonga) - I am not pointing at either, just asking provoking questions.

I hope what ever happens works out best for the People of Tonga - yes, Real Tonga might employ 60 people. Remember that is 60 people paying tax, putting money back into the economy and food on their table.

All the best

When a ship is in trouble, the captain is the last off the ship. In this situation, it seems the captain gets to go first and the rest only if there's spare seats. The priority is the athletes getting to the game, administrators or politicians should be the last, or maybe not go at all so as to save money. I don't know what happened, but in the future let's focus more on the athletes

Peter you made some good points, like you I want to see the tourist trade solidly building in Tonga. But disagree that Real Tonga has a good performance, I'm afraid their reputation has taken a dive in just about every thing published about Tonga, even Valerie Adam's took a huge hit at the operation.

With respect to the MA60, I have done the numbers along with a few others who know more than me, and we all came out about spot on, these costs were then cross checked with the Chinese and we were very close. The MA60 has proven reliability, and is a new aircraft, my bet is if people had the choice they would take the MA60, at say 190TOP a seat, and leave the Jetstreams to the wealthy. I was privy to the issue of downtime cover, you watch the Chinese kick in another aircraft if this ever became and issue. While so called aviation "Experts" like that mouth piece in NZ slams the safety of the MA60, the Chinese will become The biggest supplier of aircraft and parts to the western world in the not so distant future, the same people that rubbish a Chinese built aircraft, are flying in and out of Tonga on the A320s of Air NZ, these people who rubbish Chinese built are sitting over the wings center section, as you know this is the most vital part of the aircraft's structure, and this center section is made in China by the same company that builds the MA60. The Kiwi's that flew the MA60 before is was taken off Real Tonga, said the MA60 was safe, like any aircraft, fly it by the correct numbers, load it correctly and is will be as safe as any other Turboprop aircraft. Malo

I agree that the MA60 is a fantastic aircraft - but RealTonga's hit in reputation was not because of "who they were" as such, but becasue to the negative press around the MA60 and (wrongful) mass fallout that the press and uninformed made.

Valerie was on the Y-12 and wanted nothing more than attention, that she got.

I have also done the numbers and can't see a Part 121 certified airline running a reliable MA60 operation with yields less than 70 - 80%

All the best