Air Chatham, Tonga's second domestic air operator will begin its service to Vava'u and Ha'apai on April 14, Russell Jenkins, the airline's Tonga General Manager, said this morning.

Russell said that they will initially fly twice daily to Vava'u, and three times weekly to Ha'apai from Monday to Saturday.

"In May we will introduce new flights to 'Eua at the same time increase the Ha'apai flights to be done daily.

"We are starting off with flights to Vava'u and Ha'apai because we do not have a suitable aircraft to fly to 'Eua and Ha'apai but in May we will add to our fleet a nine-seater Islander aircraft suitable for the smaller islands," said Russell.

The airline will service Vava'u and Ha'apai with a 50 seater Convair aircraft and an 18 seater Metro aircraft.

Air Chatham is taking over as the second domestic airline from Peau Vava'u Airways, which surrendered its Air Operator's Certificate in January ending their interest in operating a domestic air service.





"We are excited about this new opportunity, we have operated here in the past as a chartered airline, now we will operate under our own right and we hope to provide a good service to the people of Tonga."

The Director of Civil Aviation Sean Te'o confirmed today, that Air Chatham would operate with a Foreign Air Operator's Certificate FAOC that was issued to the airline by the previous Director Mapa Faletau.

Until now, the domestic air service has been serviced solely by Airline Tonga, a Fiji Air-Teta Tours joint venture, since Peau Vava'u grounded its services as a result of the riots of November 16, 2006.