Royal Tongan leases new aircraft to call its own [1]
Wednesday, December 1, 1999 - 09:00. Updated on Friday, January 15, 2016 - 13:51.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 4, December 1999.
The Royal Tongan Airlines new Boeing 737-200, began servicing the Tonga – Auckland – Samoa – Niue route after an inaugural flight over Tonga with King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV on November 12.
Jim Bradfield, the general manager of Royal Tongan, said that RTA had leased the aircraft from Air New Zealand until 2002. Under this lease agreement Tonga had an aircraft that it could call its own. “Royal Tongan now can set its own schedule, use its own staff and pilots to fly the aircraft,” said Jim. “It is more expensive, because we have to pay for everything ourselves, but we can make up for it with the opportunity to market our services with confidence because we have our own aircraft.”
Tonga recently adopted an Open Air Policy, allowing more airlines to fly into Tonga.
Air Fiji started flying direct between Tongatapu and Nausori on November 16, and the dedicated cargo only air service of Transpac Express made a trial flight to Tonga at the end of November. Transpac expected to resume regular Friday flights from Auckland to Tonga and Samoa return in February next year.
At the moment six airlines are serving Tonga, but Jim believed that eight airlines would be serving Tonga before the end of the year, because of a very high demand over a short period of time. “We can’t get too carried away with the Millennium, and that is why
Royal Tongan is taking a cautious step because the base market is still the Tongans, they are good travellers.
“The tourist market will be very slow to develop until a number of fundamental changes, are made, such as the land issue….Tonga needs a big investment, but Tonga has not been able to attract that type of investment,” he said.
The new aircraft replaces the 737 that was acquired on a joint lease agreement between Royal Tongan and Air Pacific, a first of its kind in the region when one aircraft was painted with the Royal Tongan’s colour on one side and the Air Pacific’s colour on the other side. This joint lease agreement expired earlier this year and RTA had to find a new aircraft.
The new 737-200 was like a Millennium present from Jim to Tonga, because it started flying a few weeks before he left on November 30 at the completion of his contract with Royal Tongan Airlines.