Air Vanuatu Extends Regional Partnerships to Meet Demand

Air Vanuatu has extended its regional partnerships to include the use of planes and crew from Solomon Airways, Nauru Airlines and Fiji Airways. This approach enables more flights to operate on behalf of Air Vanuatu and intends to focus on stabilizing the international operations. Importantly it also means the country can meet the demand from travellers in neighbouring countries wishing to visit Vanuatu.

Air Vanuatu has an existing relationship with Nauru Airlines and has used their aircraft and crew in the past. Similarly, while Air Vanuatu’s ATR has been away for required servicing in the past month, the Fiji Airways ATR and crew flew domestic routes on contract for Air Vanuatu. This sounds like a simple solution. However, given that each of the regional airlines is facing its own challenges and there is very limited extra aircraft available for lease, getting additional flights and crew is not easy. The new approach sees all three airlines working together in a new partnership at the request of Air Vanuatu management.

The aircraft and crew from Nauru Airlines and Solomon Airways are flying under contract to bring Air Vanuatu’s guests to and from Brisbane until the end of the year.

Air Vanuatu further confirms that forward bookings are extremely strong and the ability to meet this demand is one of the reasons for these new partnerships. For example, the original international schedule launched in July had only two flights per week on the New Zealand route. However, to meet the demand from guests wanting to visit, there are now four weekly flights from New Zealand. Even with double the number of flights, planes are full and there are more people wanting to visit. Demand has exceeded expectations. So flights were increased. When a small airline like Air Vanuatu puts on extra flights like this, it means the flight hours for the crew and the aircraft increase and reach the mandated limits quicker.  To meet increasing demand the new partnership approach with all three airlines has been created.

As the only airline flying from Australia and New Zealand, there is a significant responsibility on Air Vanuatu towards the economic recovery post COVID. Most Vanuatu businesses are either directly or indirectly affected by the inflow of funds generated by travellers whether they are coming for business, leisure, or other reasons. This generates employment which in turn affects income levels for families and communities. It is important to the economy therefore, that the airline meets the demand for guests wishing to come to Vanuatu.

Finding enough planes and meeting the demand is only part of the challenges the airline faces. With the government elections now completed, directive will be given by the government who owns the airline on who the airline’s new board members are. As a state-owned airline, the government has a responsibility towards the operations and the financing of the airline. There is much anticipation that the newly elected government prioritizes necessary decisions to support the airline to further improve its operational capacity.