The Tonga government aims to start privatising all the services and the operation of the Fua'amotu International Airport in February 2005.

Dr Feleti Sevele, a businessman and the Tongatapu No. 2 People's Representative to the Tongan Parliament, has been appointed by the Tongan Cabinet to chair a committee to work on a privatisation program for the Fua'amotu International Airport.

Feleti will chair a committee with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central Planning, Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Feleti said that the main task of his committee is to find the best possible way of privatising the airport. He said that government has given them six months to come up with a plan.

The Prime Minister, Prince 'Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, in announcing the chair on September 14 explained that the privatisation of the airport is part of the Government...’s on-going economic reform program, "naturally it will be everything we can commercialise, I mean the private sector will only take things that are commercially viable".

He said that the privatisation of the Fua'amotu International Airport meant the privatisation of the Air Traffic Control, maintenance, firefighting, and the running of the airport building, "excepting Security, which will never be privatised."

The Prime Minister said that Government will continue to operate the other five domestic airports at Niuafo'ou, Niuatoputapu, Vava'u, Ha'apai and 'Eua. "We will see how well the privatisation of Fua'amotu goes". The Prime Minister doubted that the airports and the Niuas and 'Eua would ever be privatised, "because there is simply no money there so Government would still give their support," he said.