Gift from China causes trouble for tiny Tonga
Free airplane spurs N.Z. airline to leave
NUKU’ALOFA, TONGA — It’s almost 10 a.m., but the barista at this tiny Pacific kingdom’s domestic air terminal has yet to make a single cup of coffee.
Molly Fatai says her wages at the cafe have been cut by a third since last year. Flights leaving for Tonga’s outer islands have been halved to two or three per day, except for Sundays, when there are no flights at all.
The absent coffee-drinkers are mainly New Zealanders, the most common visitors to these remote, poor and beautiful islands about 2,000 kilometres northeast of Auckland. The New Zealand airline that transported many of them has packed up and left, and New Zealand’s government is warning its citizens not to use the local carrier.
“The economy of Tonga has suffered quite dramatically as a result,” said Stuart Perry, general manager of Tourism Tonga.
What set off this reaction from Tonga’s wealthy neighbour and longtime friend? A newer, more distant and even wealthier friend — China — and its gift of a plane.
It’s a tiny skirmish in a battle for global influence, with unintended consequences for this nation of just over 100,000 people.
At Tonga’s main airport, built by U.S. army contractors during the Second World War, maintenance crews work on the troublesome freebie: a 60-seater turboprop Xian MA-60. Chickens poke about in coarse tropical grass as Sau Tongi picks up his young son and looks through the fence onto the runway.
“I don’t know what they are fixing. It’s a new plane,” he says. “I don’t think I’m going to fly on that plane. Better to be safe.”
When Tonga took delivery of the plane, worth perhaps $20 million including spare parts and training, it prompted New Zealand company Air Chathams to leave after five years rather than face what it considered to be subsidized competition. That left Real Tonga, which operates the MA-60, as the sole domestic operator.
“It was very sad for us. We put our heart and soul into it,” said Air Chathams owner and chief executive Craig Emeny.
The New Zealand government posted a travel advisory on its website, warning that MA-60 planes had been involved in several recent crashes in other countries and didn’t have recognized certification. New Zealand also withheld about $5 million in tourism aid.
“We can’t just sit back and say, ‘That’s OK,’ ” New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key says of the plane’s certification.
Tourists often come to Tonga seeking a more authentic experience than on more developed islands like Fiji and Tahiti. The industry is small yet makes an important contribution to the national income. Perry says those who rely on it are wondering if their businesses will survive.
Tonga has accused New Zealand of acting like a bully. It pointed out that New Zealand had not posted similar warnings for other countries operating MA-60s — something New Zealand says it will investigate. Tonga said the plane was properly certified by China and it planned to soon accept a second Chinese plane, a Harbin Y-12.
“We need all the planes we can get,” said Vili Cocker, Tonga’s civil aviation director. He said he didn’t know of anything China wants in return.
“They are generous enough to offer these as gifts.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China had provided the plane at the request of the Tongan government “as a matter of bilateral economic and technical cooperation.