Air Vanuatu to introduce new schedule on July 1
May 6, 2022 4:28 am | Posted in Business News | Share now TwitterFacebook
Kizzy Kalsakau and Jason Abel.
Air Vanuatu has presented its new schedule that will come into effect on the 1st of July.
According to its Chief Commercial Officer, Greg Wilson, Air Vanuatu will be providing five services a week to Sydney, two services a week to Auckland, one weekly service to Melbourne, as well as three weekly services to Noumea and Brisbane. In addition, they will also provide services to and from Funafuti.
“This is exciting for us. We had previously been operating services to Tuvalu on a fortnightly basis to support connectivity to Tuvalu and Australia,” he said.
“Moving forward, we wanted to continue with the service. It also supports our plan and growth moving forward to provide connectivity to key Pacific Island countries.
“We have had a longstanding relation with Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. We work closely with Air New Guinea and the Solomon airlines. Once they announce their plans and resumption of services, Air Vanuatu will resume its coaching services on those carriers.
“Air Vanuatu is pretty excited to resume services. For the last two years, movement and connectivity has been stalled. We are now able to offer weekly services, allowing not just the movement of passengers between Vanuatu, Australia, New Zealand and our regional partners but importantly more additional space to move cargo, in and out of Vanuatu.”
He pointed out that during the pandemic, cargo has been a lifeline for Air Vanuatu.
“We have been operating on a fortnightly service, to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Fiji, and that has been vital in ensuring that businesses have been able to get their goods in and out of Vanuatu,” he said.
Mr. Wilson stated that domestically, Air Vanuatu will continue with its previous schedule. He added the schedule is in place to ensure and support again connectivity from Port Vila to Santo, Tanna and Malekula.
He commented that they will maintain the schedule flight throughout the year, to allow their passengers to connect in and around their domestic network.
Regarding airfares, Mr Wilson commented that at the moment, the fares will be based on what they previously had on the market.
“We have to remain competitive, and more importantly, we are like any other business. All airline companies around the world affected with what is currently happening in Europe, and that is impacting the cost on our fuel,” he said.
“It is something the Management is courteous about, and we will have to review if warranted.”
