REALtonga is pleased to announce that they will be putting additional seat capacity into the Tongan domestic air services effective from Monday 10th June 2013.

The airline will be using its current Y12 aircraft to provide an additional service each day between Tongatapu and Vava’u. This means that Vava’u will now be serviced by three flights per day from Monday to Saturday.  From June 24th, REALtonga will be damp leasing a Convair aircraft from Air Chathams. This aircraft has a seat capacity of 49 and will provide more than adequate capacity for the upcoming peak tourism season, especially for the Vava’u and Ha’apai sectors.

REALtonga’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tevita Palu said, “he is delighted that the airline is now in a position to offer the much needed seats to cater for the tourism peak”.  He went on to say “we are still in the process of finalizing our longer term fleet and we are happy to be able to fulfill our commitment to ensure that we are providing enough seats for all of our domestic air passengers as well as catering for our freight customers”.

The airline also announced, that from the 24th June, there will be some other material changes that will take place.  REALtonga’s Commercial Manager, Tele Faletau said, “The additional capacity obviously comes at an increased cost as well as a requirement for the airline to sell more seats to meet these costs.  To do this, the airline will be required to remove the two fare structure that is currently in place and replace it with a single fare per sector (currently the Flexi Fare). This in turn, will allow the airline to provide incentive commissions to agents and wholesalers around the world and will also allow the airline to put lower fares into the market during lower demand seasons”.

He went on to say, “the increase in capacity means that the airline has been afforded the opportunity to review the baggage allowance for REALtonga’s customers and as soon as the larger aircraft operates, the free baggage allowance for REALtonga’s customers will be increased from 10KG to 20KG for all passengers and there will now be capacity available to cater for the growing demand for air freight to the islands”.

Tevita Palu concluded by expressing his sincere appreciation to the Tongan people for their overwhelming support over the first three months of REALtonga’s operation.  “Our airline is fully Tongan owned and managed for our people and our Kingdom and our customers have shown us great support, so we are very pleased to be announcing these new developments”.

For more information, please direct any questions to the REALtonga commercial department.  Phone: +676 23-777 or e-mail falahola.moataane@paluaviation.to