Air Vanuatu has told passengers that all flights on routes to New Zealand and Australia are cancelled until next week.
Yesterday the airline said it would not be flying any services from Auckland, Sydney or Brisbane up to and including April 7, as repairs have been further delayed to the airline’s sole 737 jet plane.
“These parts are being sourced with urgent support from Boeing offices in the United States and Australia, however, are causing more delays to operations,” the airline said on its website.
This evening the airline said that it had sourced these parts but that they would now not be able to restart services until the middle of next week.
The Pacific Islands-based airline says that other carriers have had little capacity to assist, meaning that more passengers were likely to be affected by ongoing disruptions to passengers.
“At present, the only flights that will operate this week are to return guests to their home ports and have been fully ticketed.”
A borrowed Nauru Airlines 737 was currently servicing repatriation flights for customers based in Australia and New Zealand. A sole return service from Auckland would run on Thursday for passengers disrupted from the Saturday morning (April 1) service.
Some Australian travellers told the Herald they had rebooked with other carriers rather than wait for repatriation flights, arranged for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Those travelling to and from Auckland had no direct options, other than flying via Australia or Fiji.
An Air Vanuatu spokesperson said they were sorry “for the disruption and the effect this has had and continues to have on guests and industry partners, particularly around the busy Easter and school holidays travel period.”
The airline went on to say: “Safety is of course our number one priority, and we look forward to greeting travellers on board next week once flights are restarted with our signature warm Pacific welcome,” said the airline.
Passengers would not be charged administration or fees for rebooked flights and were being offered full refunds for guests who no longer wished to travel.
Take a nine-night cruise aboard Pacific Explorer to Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Air Vanuatu’s performance issues
Since reopening borders to international tourists in July last year, some tourism operators feel as if the national carrier is letting them down.
There were similar issues with the narrow-body aircraft YJ-AV8, which spent three days grounded for repairs in December, with far-reaching impacts for travellers.
The contracts of Air Vanuatu’s CEO, Atu Finau, and chairman, Sam Firi, were terminated in January, after they failed to pay debts to the company. Island Business reported that the company was seeking legal action against the former airline bosses.
This week’s technical problems have been compounded by scheduling issues and the impacts of severe tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin last month.
“We know Vanuatu had a difficult time recently, like cyclones and volcanoes, but we have a big heart,” said Kiwi traveller Michael Heuberger, who was travelling with his family to work with schools in Santo, Luganville.
Heuberger told the Herald that he felt the national airline was letting the tourism sector down and the plane’s engine failure only further damaged faith in the airline.
New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta was in Vanuatu last week, where she pledged an additional $1 million in cyclone recovery aid and signed the first-ever co-operation agreement between Vanuatu and New Zealand.
Tourism development and climate change resilience were key areas discussed.
Updated at 4:40pm for new statement on expected flight restarts
