24 Mar 2014

Tonga Airports looking forward to new Fiji Airways flights to Vava'u

7:35 am on 24 March 2014

Fiji Airways is looking to resume international flights from Fiji to Vava'u in Tonga, after cutting the service about three years ago.

Tonga's Deputy Prime Minister, Samiu Vaipulu, told Television Tonga that the government will start organizing it's flights from Suva and Nadi to Vava'u, and vice versa.

The chief executive of Tonga Airports Limited, Viliami Ma'ake, says he says he expects to be formally notified of the decision soon.

He says tourism suffered when Fiji Airways, formerly known as Air Pacific, withdrew it's services about two to three years ago.

"I think there was an obvious decline in the number of passengers directly from Fiji and also going from Tongatapu and Vava'u, in fact it has been going down gradually in the past two years."

Viliami Ma'ake says passenger numbers were also reduced due to an unreliable domestic service, so the agreement is good news for the airport, and tourism as a whole.