Real Tonga Airline today Saturday, 2 January cancelled domestic flights from Tongatapu to all of Tonga's outer islands, due to Tropical Cyclone Ula, which remains in Tongan waters.

Tevita Palu, the airline's CEO, this morning confirmed that all domestic flights were cancelled to Vava’u, Ha’apai and ‘Eua.

"We will monitor the situation of the cyclone over the weekend to decide on the flights for Monday, 4 January.

"Our domestic flights to the outer islands flew as scheduled yesterday Friday, 1 January but we cancelled due to the situation of the cyclone today," he said.

At 11:30am this morning Tonga Met forecast that on its current track TC Ula is expected to lie 240km west of Vava’u or 160km northwest of Tofua or 200km northwest of Ha'afeva around 7:00pm this evening.

A Hurricane Warning has been cancelled for Vava'u and downgraded to a storm warning. Ha'apai is also under a storm warning.

The Tropical Cyclone warnings for other island groups of Tonga have also been downgraded this morning.

A gale warning is in force for Tongatapu and 'Eua. A strong wind warning is in force for the Niuas.