Tonga in dire need of domestic air improvements

Transcript

Tourism officials in Tonga say the kingdom's domestic air service needs to improve significantly if it is to take full advantage of an increase in international capacity.

This month Fiji Airways launched a direct service between Nadi and Vava'u and an Air New Zealand 777-300 touched down in Nuku'alofa for the first time, increasing passenger capacity by 33 percent and cargo by up to 40 percent.

Tomifa Paea told Koro Vaka'uta an expected increase in arrivals is great but the islands won't reach their full potential unless domestic services are improved.  

TOMIFA PAEA:  I think it's a great opportunity for the whole kingdom, especially for the introduction of the new service into Vava'u.  I think this new service for Vava'u has been long overdue.  It should have been done eight years ago but due to various reasons from previous governments, it has pushed its progress and been delayed.  The Air New Zealand 777-200 coming into Fua'amotu, it gives great opportunities to have more seats available for a cheaper price.  The only major problem we have now is our domestic flight is not well prepared to handle the inter-island movement between Vava'u and Nuku'alofa because of the capacity of the aircraft coming in internationally but overall it's big benefits for the whole tourism industry in Tonga.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  How quickly will this materialise into feet on the ground?

TP:  With numbers coming into our airports, five years ago we were sitting at about 65,000 people arriving and 65,000 people departing.  In 2015 we had record numbers of about 82,000 arriving and 87,000 departing.  I think with this extra new route we will be sitting at the 100,000 mark in 12 months time.

KV:  With the increase in numbers is there the capacity accommodation wise?

TP:  Even with these numbers growing, all the accommodation we have in Nuku'alofa and in Vava'u, are still sitting at an average 35 percent occupancy all year round. So there is more than enough accommodation available in Tonga.  Our biggest problem is access and having more people visiting our country.

KV:  You did mention the domestic routes having an improvement there, just allowing the distribution of tourists to go internally within the kingdom, is there hope that will be improved upon soon though?

TP:  It's a major problem that government seriously needs to look into because the domestic airline is struggling at the moment to provide the service.  They are currently using two Jetstreams with the capacity of carrying 17 people.  When you have a 312 seat capacity aeroplane arriving in Nuku'alofa and you have a 17 seat capacity aeroplane to move it, there is a lot of lost opportunity for places like Ha'apai 'Eua and the Niuas to tap into those people coming into Tonga.  We need to seriously look how we can better improve our domestic airline.