From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.

When the General Manager of the Royal Tongan Airlines, Logan Appu went to Vava‘u to find out the views of tourism facilities operators about the service that is provided by the airline, he welcomed a blackboard full of complaints.

Logan told the gathering that the Royal Tongan Airlines called the meeting because they wanted to know the operators perception of their service, “We are here to listen, and to know all your difficulties, so that collectively we can explore the opportunities to develop tourism in Vava‘u and in Tonga.”

Trying

The Governor of Vava‘u, Hon. ‘Akau‘ola, in his opening speech said that he found it incredible that there were people in Tonga, “who are waiting to see the new international service of Royal Tongan fail. How can you blame someone for trying?” he asked. “We want to succeed, and we want tour operators behind us.” ‘Akau‘ola is also one of the four directors on the Royal Tongan board.

Attractions

Held from January 24-25 at the Paradise International Hotel the interchange was the first of its kind between the management of the national airline and tourism operators in Tonga’s most popular holiday destination. Vava‘u takes a lion’s share of the 25,000 tourists who visit Tonga annually. Water activities, deep sea diving, kayaking, sailing and whale watching are the major attractions, and about 405 yachts visit the Vava‘u archipelago annually.

Solutions

After listing all the complaints, participants were allocated to deal with each group of complaints, and to come up with a list of recommended solutions.

Logan, in summing up the meeting, pointed out that most of the complaints could be dealt with if there was an efficient liaison officer at the RTA office in Vava‘u to deal with operators, “so that if a seat is confirmed it means that it is confirmed, and not for the passenger to arrive at the airport and find out that there is no seat available.”

Logan said that seats could now be confirmed by telephone, resolving a major complain by operators from island resorts. Logan also promised that a VHF transmitter would be installed at the RTA office in Neiafu, for the ease of communication with island resorts, and yachts.

The cancelling of scheduled flights when there were not enough passengers to fill the flight was annoying  for operators and tourists who had to meet onward scheduled flights to get back home. Logan offered a solution to guarantee that there would be two scheduled flights from Vava‘u a week, “even if there is going to be only one person on that flight.”

Logan said that RTA was currently looking for an appropriate aircraft for the domestic service to replace the 36-seater Shorts.