TONGA - logcluster.org

Entry Points

Main entry points:

 Air – Fua’amotu International Airport (21°14'27.22"S 175° 8'58.22"W)
 Sea – Nuku’alofa Port

Both locations offer all logistics services:
 Customs facilitation
 Open Storage and Warehouses
 Operations Rooms
 Centralized Information for Transport and Deliveries

Nevertheless, congestion issues exist for both facilities.

Secondary entry points - First B plans if the main entry point are non-operational for whatever reason

 Air

 Lupepau’u (Vava’u) International Airport is the only secondary option (18°35'7.83"S 173°57'48.41"W) – This
airport is located in Vava’u District but can only operate lighter flights up to C130

 Lifuka Island (Ha’apai) airport is able to operate C130 (restricted load) with a strip of 1200 meters
(19°46'36.35"S 174°20'29.11"W)

 Sea

 Neiafu (Vava’u) Port of refuge (18°39'8.87"S 173°59'5.37"W) a deep-water harbour on the south coast of
Vava'u, the main island of the Vava'u archipelago in northern Tonga.

 Pangai (Ha’apai) port (19°48'12.46"S 174°21'5.48"W) is the only sea port of Ha’apai group of Islands, with
limited capacity (wharf of less than 60 meters)

Notes: The only airport sufficiently equipped to operate significant emergency operations is Fua’amotu
International Airport
 Air: All other airports will only operate ATR42 or Hercules and have no equipment
o
Nuku’alofa port is equipped for containers operations.
o All other ports, even if having concrete wharves, are not equipped to operate containers 
 Sea: transshipment operations required for all operations.

o
o

Existing Operational Corridors in Tonga

Main existing corridors

 Land
o The road corridor linking the Port of Nuku’alofa to Fua’amotu Airport is the economic backbone of
Tonga.

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 Air
o International:
 The airlines flying to Fua’amotu are Pacific Blue Airlines, Air New Zealand, & Air Pacific.
o Domestic: Regular domestic services are operated by Chathams Pacific to Vava’u, Ha’apai & ‘Eua, less
frequent services are operated to Niuatoputapu and Nuiafo’ou

 Sea
o International – Tonga is connected to the main regional and international sea transport hubs. Most of
the biggest international shipping companies operate in Tonga, either directly or through partnership
with local / regional companies. Shipping operations from Australia will take 5 (Brisbane) to 6 (Sydney)
days, while from New-Zealand, 4 days will be necessary.
o Domestic – Tonga Shipping Company and FISA operate regular inter-islands sea cargo. Of course,
during emergencies, the vessels used for inter-islands operations will be requisitioned for emergency
relief operations. Tonga Defense Services also operates several vessels.

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Storage:

Introduction:

o There are clear storage / commodities management issues at all entry points.
o As emergency operations are likely to happen during the wet seasons, open storage is not an
option except in containers

Current situation:

o Few private companies (for both sea and air transport) have storage capacities that may
temporarily be used during the initial phases of emergency operations (first 72 hours, until a longer
term solution is developed)
o Main ports and airports have limited storage and warehousing capacities

Planning

o Locations have been identified in Nuku’alofa and Fua’amotu for the setting up of logistics
hubs.
In Nuku’alofa port (21° 8'13.41"S 175°10'48.39"W)
 In Fua’amotu Airport (near the Fire brigade 21°14'51.13"S 175° 8'36.12"W) and military
 compound (21°14'30.96"S 175° 8'8.33"W)
In Nuku’alofa Police Academy Compound (opposite to NEMO / NEOC office 21° 8'31.24"S
 175°12'34.52"W) but this area is flood and tsunami prone.

o Each district should identify temporary storage facilities (governmental buildings, schools,
churches …) or select floods safe areas for the setting up of tents.
o For large scale scenarios, MSUs (Wiik / Rubber Halls) will probably be the only option. Tonga
government / UN agencies / donors should assess this option.
o Logistics Hubs kits have been developed by WFP. Those kits include a MSU + Prefab office +
power generation and lightning equipment. If financial means are available, 2 or 3 kits could be bought
for Tonga operations and stored under Tonga NEMO responsibility. Deployment could be anywhere as
transportation of the kits is easy.

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Dispatching:
Current situation:

o Usually, during Emergency Response operations, Tonga Disaster Management authorities are
used to dispatch the relief items directly from the NEOC. No specific Logistics unit or dispatching center
is set up. Tasks are allocated directly by the operational persons in charge, with no split between
departments (program, logistics, health, education, water …).
o As all operations in remote locations will require repackaging and transshipment operations,
this need to be considered when designing the initial Concept of Operations (an additional hangar,
linked to the dispatching centre, need to be specifically designated to this purpose).

Planning & Improvement:

o During emergencies, a specific dispatching center should be set up, managed by the Logistics
Coordination. The Customs cell should be operating from the dispatching center
o During emergencies, the dispatching center should be operated by / with the support of
private companies bringing their professional experience for dispatching operations and commodities
tracking.

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