[3] In June 1995, an agreement was signed with Air Pacific, which saw the lease-sharing of a Boeing 737-300 operated on Royal Tongan routes.

[5] In 1996 the airline opened an office in Honolulu, and began codesharing on Air New Zealand flights from Tongatapu to the Hawaiian capital.

The agreement signed in early October 1997, saw Polynesian Airlines extending its Apia-Wellington-Melbourne flights to operate Apia-Tonga-Wellington-Melbourne.

The agreement was a continuation of efforts by airlines in the South Pacific to pool their limited resources to maximise their services.

[9] Direct flights between Tongatapu and Sydney were announced in April 1999 as part of a Tongan initiative to increase tourist numbers from Australia.

[13] Royal Tongan service of the 757, nicknamed 'Ikale Tahi, was inaugurated at Fuaʻamotu International Airport on 23 November 2002,[14] with thrice-weekly flights from Tongatapu to Auckland, with a once-a-week extension to Sydney.

[16] The Director of the Tongan Human Rights and Democracy Movement claimed the restructuring of the airline suffered from a lack of transparency.

[18] It was also determined that whilst Royal Tongan expected a 65% load factor on these flights, the actual figure was closer to 34%.

[19] In dismissing KPMG's review, CEO Logan Appu, stated that the airline would continue to operate internationally, and confirmed that the airline would begin flights to Honolulu in December 2003,[20] in spite of the report recommending that Royal Tongan ditch the international flights and concentrate only on domestic services.

[27] He noted that the Tupou had issued a royal decree for the 757 project to proceed, despite opposition from the cabinet and parliament, and claimed that the monarchy is not accountable to the public.

[28] On 18 May 2004, the airline ceased all operations with the remaining one hundred employees losing their jobs, and the islands of Tonga being left without domestic air service.

[33] In the absence of domestic flights in Tonga, by June 2004 Air Waves of Vava'u and Fly Niu Airlines had begun operations on some of the former Royal Tongan routes.