THE Government of Tonga has allowed Fiji’s national carrier, Fiji Airways, to conduct scheduled domestic flights within Tonga.
This comes after the Fijian Government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tongan Government a few days ago.
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji Airways domestic subsidiary Fiji Link would operate scheduled flights between Tongatapu and Vavau in Tonga.
“This is obviously not a regular thing to do where you have air service agreements that has rules surrounding the conduct of national carriers between the two countries, which are the designated national carriers,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said this was a welcomed partnership between the two countries, adding the deal was to deliver chartered flights to Tonga — however they now had scheduled flights.
“Both countries were looking forward to this partnership and the opportunity for Fiji Airways and Fiji Link to have code-sharing or some partnership with other Tongan airlines,” he said.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said flights would not necessarily begin in November as earlier stated but could start sooner than that.
He said it would depend on how they put things together on the ground.
