Airline Tonga introduced a 50-seater Convair aircraft to its domestic air service on July 3, servicing the Tongatapu-Vava'u-Ha'apai route twice daily from Monday to Saturday.

Sitafooti ‘Aho the Manager of Airline Tonga said today that the Convair service was additional to and their Harbin Y12 service on the ‘Eua route twice daily from Monday to Saturday, and once weekly to the remote northern islands of Niuatoputapu and Niuafo...’ou.

He said that since the Convair aircraft began its commercial service to Vava...’u last week, "we have had an average of 48 passengers on board on both daily flights to and from Vava‘u, with the majority of them tourists.

He said that with the Convair Airline Tonga is able to fly more tourists to Vava'u because, "we can connect them with their International flights in and out of Tonga."

Airlines Tonga hopes to bring in a Dash 8 type aircraft to service the Fiji ...– Vava...’u route later this year. The two shareholders of Airlines Tonga are Fiji Air and Teta Tours as the majority share holder.

The second airline to service the domestic air service, Peau Vava'u, is operating a DC 3 between Tongatapu, Vava'u and Ha'apai.