Air NZ looking to help stranded passengers

10.00am

Air New Zealand today said it was looking at ways to help travellers stranded over the grounding of the plane used for Royal Tongan Airlines' international routes.

The Boeing 757, leased from Royal Brunei Airlines, was understood to have been prevented on Thursday from operating yesterday's service from Auckland to Tonga.

Air NZ said it working with Tongan authorities to help stranded passengers, but details had yet to been confirmed.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the financially-troubled Royal Tongan Airlines said the reason the plane did not take off was because of a mechanical problem.

She did not know what the problem was, but the airline was hopeful of taking some passengers back to Tonga this weekend if the necessary parts arrived.

However, she admitted that the prospect of further flights "does not look good".

"We can only wait and see. We're hanging in there."

Kalafi Moala, the editor of Auckland-based newspaper Times of Tonga, estimated that about 200 passengers had been waiting to fly out of Auckland airport.

He expected a similar number would have been stranded in Tonga.

He said a permanent grounding of the Boeing 757 would cause significant disruption as May to July was the busiest period for travel to Tonga.

There were festivals marking the birthdays of the King and the Crown Prince, while June was the month of church conferences.

"People will have booked all the way through to July," he said.

"Another airline will have to step in. Air NZ flies there anyway, but will probably have to put on extra flights."

Royal Tongan Airways flew four times a week between Auckland and Tonga.

The airline's troubles were revealed in an investigative report by accountants KPMG in June last year.

Its budgeted loss for the year ending June 2004 was $13.2 million, according to the report, but industry sources believed it was far higher, up to $47.5 million.

Mr Moala said the airline's problems spelt economic disaster for Tonga, because the airline had borrowed from both Tonga Telecommunications and the Government.

- NZPA