In the end, it wasn’t a jetliner that grounded operations at Fu’amotu airport; it was politics.

The sudden suspension of Tonga Airports Ltd (TAL) Chief Executive Officer Edgar Cocker last week has exposed a power struggle that has been taxiing behind closed doors for months. What began as an internal management issue has become a test of competence and credibility for the government of Hon Piveni Piukala, Minister for Public Enterprises, and possibly the Prime Minister himself.

At a press conference, Piukala said Cocker was suspended for the “misuse of power.” But officials now claim the real reason is poor performance, pointing to missed deadlines and stalled projects. It is a neat bureaucratic line, one that conceals as much as it reveals.

“It basically boils down to performance and not getting anything done like he said he could,” one industry source told Tonga Independent. Others, however, say the story runs deeper and much messier.

The timing of the suspension is hardly random. It lands squarely in the middle of an ongoing standoff over TAL’s attempt to take over ground handling operations from Air Terminal Services (ATS), a plan many in the aviation sector describe as “fantasy at 30,000 feet.”

“These realities should have been known and understood before the idea of TAL taking over ground handling was even whispered about,” said one aviation insider. “If you don’t know what you’re doing in a heavily regulated industry, you can only lead others to an expensive and embarrassing dead end.”

Behind the scenes, tensions between Piukala and Cocker had been rising for weeks. One account claims the Minister accused Cocker of feeding him inaccurate information that made him “look foolish.” Whether that’s the real trigger or not, it’s clear the relationship had reached cruising altitude for confrontation.

Earlier this year, the ministry raised alarm bells about “security concerns” linked to ATS operations, claims used to justify withholding renewal of the company’s licence. Yet, as one aviation source told Tonga Independent, those claims don’t hold up to scrutiny.

“If there was ever an issue at the airport that the police had to comment on, those comments would go to Customs and Aviation Security first, which is part of TAL. Any shortcomings in airport security fall under TAL’s responsibility, not ATS’s,” the source said.

ATS’s ten-year operating agreement expired on 2 August 2024. Since then, it has survived on temporary extensions while the Minister and his advisers drift between options: first a direct takeover by TAL, then an open tender, then back again. In April this year, a new agreement was reportedly ready for signing until the Minister withdrew support at the eleventh hour. Stop-gap extensions have been proposed, but none have been signed.

That leaves the government with three choices, all difficult and all expensive.

Option one: TAL absorbs ATS staff, buys its equipment, and begins the lengthy licensing process to operate as a certified ground handler. Experts warn that could take more than a year, a delay that could see Air New Zealand suspend flights to Tonga.

Option two: return to the agreement TAL already negotiated with ATS earlier this year, finalise it, and put the issue to rest.