From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.

By Pesi Fonua.

Tonga’s civil aviation safety assessment wins the approval of USFAA.

Tongan registered aircraft may now apply to fly to the United States, under Air Operator Certificates that can be issued by Tonga’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The national carrier Royal Tongan Airlines is expected to begin flights to the United States soon, following the agreement of the US Federal Aviation Administration to issue Tonga with an International Aviation Safety Assessment, Category One certificate.

Mapa Faletau, the Secretary for Civil Aviation, said that the FAA’s issuing in July of the IASA Category One Certificate was an enormous boost to the credibility of Tonga’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The IASA certificate authorises the Ministry of Civil Aviation to issue Air Operator Certificates to Tonga registered aircraft, the first step in flying to the United States.

Mapa said that Royal Tongan Airlines was very keen to add the United States to its international destinations. “Royal Tongan will formally apply to the USA to operate there, and then the FAA will do a safety check based on the IASA Category One, then an Economic Approval Agreement will be issued to Royal Tongan to operate in the USA,” he said.

The link to the United States will expand the area that can be covered by Royal Tongan Airlines, which already flies into Australia and New Zealand.

On June 12 the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued Royal Tongan with an AOC enabling its Boeing 757 to fly into New Zealand and Australia. Mapa said that before this the airline was operating to those two countries under a Brunei Royal Airlines certificate.

Mapa said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had been working hard to win the United States approval. “In February we met the FAA and said we have an airline, which has been running for 10 years, it is operating a Boeing 757 and we would like to operate to the USA, can a special concession be given to Tonga? The FAA said no, but if Tonga was ready to be inspected and audited by the FAA they would come over as quickly as possible.”

Mapa said that FAA experts were in Tonga during February and March, “they went through all our systems, all our processes of certification and they were happy and signed off 90 per cent of everything that we do in Tonga. The 10 per cent that was left outstanding was an agreement that we have with the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, because they conduct all our safety certification for the Boeing 757. The FAA wanted us to tighten up this agreement with the NZ CAA and make more explicit the functions that they do for us.

Mapa said that process had been going on since March, and the certificate was issued in July. “To have a country is as big as the USA accepting a Tongan certificate, is an incredible step for Tonga,” said Mapa. The process of certification normally takes two years.

When the Prime Minister HRH Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata was in Washington they met with the USA Deputy Secretary of Transport, and “the USA was quite happy to issue Tonga with a IASA certificate, again because of their trust in HRH and his commitment for the development of Tonga’s civil aviation. The fact that Tonga was the first country in the Pacific to achieve the anti-terrorist legislation, has been complimented by various people, including the president of International Civil Aviation Organisation.”

Space tourism

While in Washington Mapa said that Tonga’s Space Tourism Program was also discussed and the Americans were considering it favourably. “The good thing about that project is because Tonga is a signatory to the Non Proliferation [of arms] Treaty.” Mapa believed that the only thing that was holding that project back was finance.

Mapa said that it was unfortunate that the public attention had focused on the financial plight of Royal Tongan and very little on the success that had been achieved in an effort to establish an international air service for Tonga, “unless we have some control over our international air service we can’t plan our economic development. We can’t forecast the number of air travellers who will be coming to Tonga, then we can’t invest in new hotels, we can’t invest in our fishing industries. A safe and secure international air service has links with everything we do in this country, and it will force industries to perform. If this project will cost the country $20 million let it be, because it has links with everything that we do in this country.”

Mapa said that further infrastructural development in Civil Aviation would now have to be decided on by government. “We have had preliminary meetings with the World Bank and they are interested in funding the transport sector. The question then, is do we develop specifically only aviation or the whole national transport system, in the air, land and at sea? It is for government to decide, but I suspect they would like to raise the status of development in all these areas to the same level, and to look at a national transportation system as a whole.”

Mapa believed that transportation by land and by sea were desperately in need of upgrading to be on par with the development in civil aviation telecommunications and information technology.