9 May 2007

Air Peau Vava'u plans resumption of Tonga flights

2:32 pm on 9 May 2007

One of the domestic airlines in Tonga, Air Peau Vava'u, is hoping to resume its service shortly.

The airline stopped its operations after it lost important documents in its head office in a fire in the November riot.

The chief executive of the airline, Tele Faletau, says inspectors will arrive from New Zealand next week to inspect the airline's two aircraft and issue new certificates.

Mr Faletau says once the certificates have been issued flights will restart.

"Initially we will be resuming the network structure that we had prior to our grounding, which is between the main islands of Tongatapu and Vava'u. With our fleet now we will now look at other sectors within the domestic market that we could operate on a viable basis."

Tele Faletau says additional flights will contribute to the development of the kingdom.