More air services planned for the Pacific as firms and countries change positions
AirCargo 238 archives stories
Monday, 31 August 2015
THE SOUTH and Central Pacific region has experienced some air route downside in the past year.
Governments have bickered over air rights, carriers searched for equipment to launch new links, while traffic – cargo and passenger – both showed volatility (although mostly veering to the positive). Infrastructure limitations in some island nations also dampened operator RoI expectations.
Recent good news among the negative and ho-hum has included a new scheduled service between Port Moresby and Port Vila, as well as the migration of a Nuku’alofa/Vava’u charter service in the Kingdom of Tonga to RPT status.
The latter could help Tonga firm up its domestic services, which have been more than a little troubled since the government sponsored Real Tonga setting up as an airline.
(Chathams Pacific withdrew as a consequence, saying competing profitable services would be an impossibility).
Real Tonga started with the China-gifted MA60 aircraft, only to give the plane back earlier this year. And it is now going to be operated by a new entity, although there is some local scepticism about the viability of this operation.
Real Tonga has since focused on smaller aircraft, hauling freight but on a small-scale basis.
It already has built on Fiji Airways/Fiji Link services to the kingdom by chartering a Link ATR 72-600 for Nuku’alofa/Vava’u flights.
Now the Fiji and Tonga governments have agreed to bump this up to regular operations. And they are talking about leveraging the relationship further.
At a MoU-signing ceremony, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji’s attorney-general and minister for civil aviation described the agreement as “an important breakthrough” that would benefit both Fiji and Tonga.
“The Tongan Government has asked Fiji Airways not only to fly domestic routes but also to examine the feasibility of operating services between Tonga and Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands. Fiji Airways has agreed to assess the Tongan request and will make a commercial decision in the near future.” Pictured: Air Niugini crew on first flight to Port Vila
This is a realistic scenario, albeit based partly on the Kingdom of Tonga’s ongoing aviation problems.
But there have been a lot of other inter-island services mooted in the past few years, some of them by existing operators with little chance of turning big visions into reality, some by wannabe start-ups with no likelihood of success and some proposals with a strong dollop of wishful thinking.
More air services planned for the Pacific as firms and countries change positions
AirCargo 238 archives stories
Monday, 31 August 2015
THE SOUTH and Central Pacific region has experienced some air route downside in the past year.
Governments have bickered over air rights, carriers searched for equipment to launch new links, while traffic – cargo and passenger – both showed volatility (although mostly veering to the positive). Infrastructure limitations in some island nations also dampened operator RoI expectations.
Recent good news among the negative and ho-hum has included a new scheduled service between Port Moresby and Port Vila, as well as the migration of a Nuku’alofa/Vava’u charter service in the Kingdom of Tonga to RPT status.
The latter could help Tonga firm up its domestic services, which have been more than a little troubled since the government sponsored Real Tonga setting up as an airline.
(Chathams Pacific withdrew as a consequence, saying competing profitable services would be an impossibility).
Real Tonga started with the China-gifted MA60 aircraft, only to give the plane back earlier this year. And it is now going to be operated by a new entity, although there is some local scepticism about the viability of this operation.
Real Tonga has since focused on smaller aircraft, hauling freight but on a small-scale basis.
It already has built on Fiji Airways/Fiji Link services to the kingdom by chartering a Link ATR 72-600 for Nuku’alofa/Vava’u flights.
Now the Fiji and Tonga governments have agreed to bump this up to regular operations. And they are talking about leveraging the relationship further.
At a MoU-signing ceremony, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji’s attorney-general and minister for civil aviation described the agreement as “an important breakthrough” that would benefit both Fiji and Tonga.
“The Tongan Government has asked Fiji Airways not only to fly domestic routes but also to examine the feasibility of operating services between Tonga and Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands. Fiji Airways has agreed to assess the Tongan request and will make a commercial decision in the near future.” Pictured: Air Niugini crew on first flight to Port Vila
This is a realistic scenario, albeit based partly on the Kingdom of Tonga’s ongoing aviation problems.
But there have been a lot of other inter-island services mooted in the past few years, some of them by existing operators with little chance of turning big visions into reality, some by wannabe start-ups with no likelihood of success and some proposals with a strong dollop of wishful thinking.
The latter could help Tonga firm up its domestic services, which have been more than a little troubled since the government sponsored Real Tonga setting up as an airline.
