Royal Tongan Airlines was the national airline of Tonga until liquidation in 2004. It was a government agency and operated interisland services and international routes.
Friendly Island Airways CASA 212 at Essendon Airport (1986)
Royal Tongan Boeing 757-200 at Sydney Airport (2004).
A Royal Tongan Boeing 737-300 leased from Air Pacific
A Royal Tongan Airlines Boeing 757-200 at Sydney
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about 750 km2 (290 sq mi), scattered over 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi) in the southern Pacific Ocean. As of 2021, according to Johnson's Tribune, Tonga has a population of 104,494, 70% of whom reside on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately 800 km (500 mi) north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west, Niue to the east, and Kermadec to the southwest. Tonga is about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) from New Zealand's North Island. Tonga is a member of The Commonwealth.
The arrival of Abel Tasman in Tongatapu, 1643; drawing by Isaack Gilsemans
William Mariner was a teenaged English sailor adopted into a royal Tongan family.
King George, of the Friendly Islands (1852)
Tāufaʻāhau, King of Tonga (1845–1893)