Chatham Airlines begins servicing Tonga’s domestic flight services this week.
The announcement comes a month after Kaniva News reported that Lulutai contacted the New Zealand airlines to assist with its services.
Lulutai Airlines has leased a SAAB 340B from Air Chathams for three months. The aircraft was expected to serve the kingdom under Lulutai Airline’s Air Operating Certificate.
As we reported at the time, Air Chatham and Lulutai have been negotiating for the New Zealand airline, which previously operated Tonga’s domestic air service, to take over Tonga’s domestic flights on a four-month wet lease.
A wet lease is an arrangement whereby Chathams can provide a Saab 340 aircraft—the same type operated by Lulutai until it was damaged in December—with aircrew and maintenance.
Duane Emeny, Air Chathams’s Chief Operating Officer, has reportedly confirmed that its aircraft began flying in Tonga this week.
Tonga experienced a long-standing flight crisis that could be traced back to after Chathams left the kingdom in 2011. Last week, Fiji Airways temporarily downgraded its aircraft on the Nadi to Vava’u route from an ATR72 to a smaller ATR 42 due to a safety issue with the fire services stationed at the Lupepau’u Airport in Tonga’s Vava’u islands.
Meanwhile, Lulutai is expected to buy another Saab 340. This was recently mentioned in Parliament, with the Opposition saying money for the purchase had been allocated in the 2024-2025 budget. There was no further information available to us on the new aircraft. It has been claimed that they can be bought for as little as US$1 million.
The Saab is bigger than Lulutai’s recently purchased DeHavilland Canada Twin Otter, which the government bought for US$6 million.
When asked about the difference between the prices and why the Twin Otter was more expensive, our source said it depended on the negotiations between the buyer, in this case, the Tonga government, and the seller. He said the government should have gotten a better deal and bought a cheaper Twin Otter for about US$3 million.
Air Chathams ran Tonga’s domestic airline from 2007 to 2011 before it was forced out of the country.
The airline’s CEO, Craig Emeny, said at the time that Chatham’s was the 11th airline to operate in Tonga. He blamed his airline’s departure on the then government’s decision to establish a rival airline, Real Tonga, using donated Chinese aircraft. Chatham Airlines currently operates 10 aircraft, including two ATR72s and three Saab 340s, the same type operated by Lulutai Airlines. It serves destinations in New Zealand’s main islands, the Chathams, and Norfolk Island in Australia.