Lulutai Airlines de-Havilland Twin-Otter. Photo: Tonga High Commission Canberra
Uncertainty is still in the air despite Tonga's Lulutai Airlines being able to take to the skies once more.
The domestic airline resumed operations on Wednesday after Tonga's Civil Aviation Office suspended its maintenance certificate on 19 July, due to confirmed breaches of civil aviation rules.
The Civil Aviation Office, in its statement on Wednesday, said the decision to lift the suspension was provisional and would be closely monitored by the Civil Aviation Office.
"Further non-compliance by Lulutai may lead to the suspension being reinstated without further notice," it said.
"A final decision on full revocation or reinstatement of the suspension will be communicated in due course."
While the domestic Tongan airline was under the suspension no flights were available in or out of a number of small Tongan islands including Ha'apai.
Clint Cantrell, who owns the Sea Change Eco Retreat in Ha'apai, said the potential of a full revocation or reinstatement of the suspension did leave people with some uncertainty.
Cantrell said he and his wife Maria were used to uncertainty in hospitality, having faced other challenges from the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai undersea volcano in 2022 to years of Covid.
"We've sort of learned to ride the roller coaster," he said. "But we completely understand that our guests or people that are considering holidays would potentially be a little bit nervous about whether or not Civil Aviation would just come back and reissue a ban."
He said more certainty about what was going to happen would make life a little easier.
Cantrell said following the airline's suspension, Maria had spent hours responding to emails from guests that were booked for the rest of the season, who were worried about what was going on with the airline and a couple of guests had cancelled their stay.
Guests dash for the mainland
Prior to the suspension being lifted there had been a lot of uncertainty around when flights would resume, Cantrell said.
He said the day before it was announced that the suspension was lifted one of the local people managed to arrange for a cargo ferry to do a special run to Ha'api.
"All 15 of our guests agreed that they wanted to get on the ferry because at that point we had no idea when flights were going to resume again," he said. "We didn't know if it was going to be a day, a week, a month, or perhaps not even operating for the rest of the season because there was just no information."
Cantrell said the seven-to-eight hour trip was a "tough journey" for them.
"The ferry didn't have any food or water or even seats for people to sit on."
He said he had gotten word on Wednesday that the guests had all got on an Air New Zealand flight home.
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