Real Tonga

The aircraft is a 4-seater and may as well be regarded as a mini version of aeroplanes.

Although small, the arrival of the Cessna is a big step towards setting up The Kingdom of Tonga’s 1st ever flying school.

Tongans have been attending flying school in New Zealand or other countries that already have the resources and instructors, an undertaking that is usually very expensive.

In the South Pacific region, only Fiji has 3 flying schools.

The 29^th of July is historical for REALtonga Airlines as it launched its inaugural flight to Suva, Fiji Islands.

“Moving into servicing this route we will satisfy the traveling public of the Kingdom as we are able to get them to Suva in less than 2hrs depending on the current forecast,” the airline said in a press release.

The flight takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Monday services will increase to two per week making it easy for business travellers, visa applicants and tertiary students.

Current schedule is every Monday

This is very good news for Real Tonga who primarily operates domestic flights. However, in recent months the airline has taken steps towards serving internationally one step at a time.

So far, Real Tonga’s only regional route has been to from Tongatapu to Apia - Samoa. 

On the other hand, Fiji Airways has been operating flights to Tonga since the early 60’s as Air Pacific.

Nonetheless there has been no direct flight from Tonga to Suva since April 2018.

Passengers travelling between Suva and Tongatapu have since had to go through Nadi.

Its chief executive Tevita Palu told the Samoa Observer that they chose Samoa as their first international destination because of the love for the country.

The airline has been servicing Tonga domestically since its inception five years ago.

Polynesian Airlines, now Samoa Airways, used to fly between Apia and Tongatapu in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Palu said there hasn't been a direct service from Tonga to Samoa for almost ten years and the only way to get to Samoa was to go via Auckland or Nadi.

The company said the Jet-Stream aircraft, which is chartered at a monthly cost of about $US35,000 dollars, has not been used in the past three months because of a fall in demand.

The plane had been operating between Tongatapua, Vava'u and Ha'apai.

Radio Tonga reports that more people are understood to sailing between the islands after improvements in services and cheaper fares.

The national airline’s CEO Tevita Palu has confirmed today his company had received no help from the government but the aircraft resumed operations yesterday and arrived in Vava’u on Tuesday afternoon.

Palu told Kaniva News he had asked the government for help, but nothing had happened.

We reported previously the airline needed $TP400,000 to prepare the aircraft for services.

The MA60 was meant to resume services this month, but remains grounded.

The airline recently won the bid to operate the MA60 after a previous lease between the two was terminated in February after the 56-seater plane was grounded.

Real Tonga's chief executive Tevita Palu says the company is now waiting on the government to certify the aircraft but he hopes to use it for international routes.

"There is nothing stopping us from doing that. The aeroplane, the MA60, it was not capable of doing that route before so hopefully this time round the aircraft will be certified to serve those routes."