Air Kaila'a

## Notes

To retire the 737-500.

**Air Kaila'a** is an airline which is the flag carrier of Kaila'a.

## History

### Origins

The airline was founded by New Zealander John Harold. after he moved to Kaila'a for a new job, He founded Air Kaila'a which was named Air James Cook (named after James Cook, a british leader) at the time. A few month after its foundation, the first 727-200 was delivered to the airline.

### Air Fatukola'maa

After Harold's death in 1979, Air James Cook was acquired by Qantas and renamed to Air Fatukola'maa. By 1982, Air Fatukola'maa's shareholders included the governments of Fiji, Tonga and Nauru. By 1986, Qantas, Air New Zealand, British Airways and the Kaila'an government held equal shareholdings.

By 1987, seven Pacific island governments, held shares in Air Fatukola'maa, in addition to shares held by Qantas, Air New Zealand and British Airways. However, the regional airline idea lost support as some of the shareholding Pacific island governments sold their shares and created their own national airlines.

In the 1990s, tourism became the nation's leading industry, which made the airline even more important to the Kaila'an economy; and the government of Kaila'a acquired a controlling interest in Air Fatukola'maa in 1994. In 1996 the airline relocated its headquarters from Northeastern Fatukola'maa to Southern Fatukola'maa where the main international airport is located. The company also constructed an elaborate aircraft maintenance centre there.

In 2004, Air Fatukola'maa acquired AeroHopper, a domestic airline, renamed it Fatukola'maa Hopper and began operations as Fatukola'maa's domestic and regional subsidiary.

### Air Kaila'a

In December 2014, Managing Director & CEO Fuato'maa Kiloa announced that the airline, which was completing a successful turnaround that included restructuring and re-fleeting, would be re-branded as "Air Kaila'a" to help enhance sales and marketing of the airline and the south pacific island nation. In June 2015, Fatukola'maa Hopper was rebranded to Kaila'a Link.

In July 2014 Air Kaila'a announced a new Fatukola'maa-Jakarta service. In December 2014, the airline orders 6 787-9 Dreamliners with the first delivered in February 2015, In December 2015, Air Kaila'a commenced a twice-weekly service to Hong Kong, which was increased to three services in January 2017.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Kaila'a announced 100 job losses in Kaila'a on 21 September 2020.

Today, the airline and its domestic/regional subsidiary, Kaila'a Link, operate over 450 flights a week to lots of cities in Oceanic and Asian countries along with 2 international flights around the world (1 flight to the UK and the other to Canada).

## Accidents and incidents

* On 14 March 1998, an Air Kaila'a Boeing 737-500 had it's fuselage damaged after a hard landing, the aircraft was later repaired.
* On 28 April 2005, Air Kaila'a Flight 438, a Boeing 737-400 (reg: KA-DFS) flying from Sydney to Fatukola'maa, crashed a few kilometers from Sydney Airport after a failure of it's left engine due to lack of fuel which led to fuel starvation and a nosedive which led to a crash into the Australian Caost near Sydney, 56 out of 58 people died.
* On 5 November 2014, Air Kaila'a Flight 324, an Airbus A340-300 was flying between Fatukola'maa and Cebu when it's 3rd and 2nd engine failed, the 3rd engine later seperated from the right wing and the cowling and propeller of the 2nd engine seperated and parts of the propeller and cowling went in the engine causing rapid fire. However the plane was still flying with the 1st and 4th engines still working, and the plane safely landed at Cebu 1 hour later after the engines failed over Papua New Guinea. Although it was repaired, it was retired 1 year later and was scrapped at Mojave, USA in December 2021.

* On 2 January 2019, Air Kaila'a Flight 921, an Airbus A320-200 flying between Fatukola'maa and Tokyo via Cebu when it crashed just 7 minutes after takeoff into the Fakivali'a Strait, the cause of the crash was identified to be bad weather caused to severe fog and smoke from a wildfire near the Fakivali'a Strait while led to loss of control from engine failure on both engines, the plane later nosedived non-stop until crashing into the Strait.

## Gallery

a Boeing 787-9 at King Country Field in 2015 prior to delivery.an Airbus A320-200 on approach to Sydney, Australia (later crashed in 2019)