The Chathams Pacific story

Commercial aviation has been a difficult nut to crack in Tonga since the first domestic flights took off in 1972. Bernd Sturm recalls a visit to the South Pacific kingdom and the brief period when Chathams Pacific connected the island nation with Convair classics

Tonga has always proved itself a challenge to its airlines. Although the country’s aviation authority has often enforced a strict one-airline policy to avoid competition, no fewer than 11 airlines have come and gone over the past five decades. Chathams Pacific Airlines was no exception, operating for just five years from 2008-2013.

However, the carrier’s brief reign marks a very special chapter in the nation’s aviation history – having connected the kingdom with a fleet of vintage aircraft rarely seen operating elsewhere. 

Tonga is a small Polynesian sovereign state with a population of around 100,000 inhabiting 36 of 169 islands. Remarkably, the country was never colonised, although it was a British protected state between 1900 and 1970. As of 2010, the island nation is a constitutional monarchy. Its many islands can be divided into three groups: Tongatapu, the country’s port of entry and administrative and financial centre; tourist hotbed Vava’u, which offers excellent sailing and diving opportunities; and Ha’apai, sandwiched between the two. Additionally, there are two remote islands further north, Niuatoputapu and Niuafo’ou, which receive infrequent air links. 

Few places on Earth lie further away from Europe than Tonga; as the crow flies, its small capital – Nuku’alofa – is 10,423 miles from Frankfurt, where my journey began. There are no direct flights to the Polynesian outpost and at least two stops are required en route. I opted to fly with Lufthansa on board a Boeing 747-400 to Hong Kong for the first leg, before continuing to Auckland on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A340-300. 

Before completing my journey, I seized the opportunity to fly with Great Barrier Airlines to its namesake island on bright red Britten-Norman Trislander, ZK-LGF (c/n 1023). 

Chathams Pacific's sole Swearingen Metroliner, ZK-CIC (c/n 623), arrives at Ha'apai from Vava'u 

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The following day, I boarded an Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300ER, the third and final widebody on my marathon trip to the Kingdom of Tonga. Nuku'alofa´s Fua'amotu International Airport, lies around 12 miles south of the capital. It is the country’s only international gateway and the only airport large enough to handle jet aircraft. It has a single 8,795ft asphalt runway and a smaller, unused grass strip. 

Unusual for an international facility, it is completely closed on Sundays by Tongan law (like everything else) when people are expected to attend church services. 

Great Barrier Airlines operated a quartet of Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk.III Trislanders. The carrier has since shifted to a fleet of three Cessna Grand Caravans and rebranded as Barrier Air 

At the time of my visit, the gateway played host to Chathams Pacific Airlines – then the nation’s only domestic carrier. The Tongan domestic market is simply not big enough to sustain more than one domestic operator and, even for a monopolist, providing air links is a difficult venture due to the country’s geography in the region.