Travellers to Vanuatu have been stranded in Port Vila, Auckland and Sydney after the island nation's carrier's only Boeing 737 was grounded. Photo / Supplied
Travellers to Vanuatu have been stranded in Port Vila, Auckland and Sydney after the island nation's carrier's only Boeing 737 was grounded. Photo / Supplied
Aircraft woes have stranded passengers in Auckland, Sydney and Port Vila after Air Vanuatu’s sole Boeing 737 was grounded in Brisbane.
Air Vanuatu operates one 737-800, which flies all mid-haul routes from Port Vila, including to New Zealand and Australia.
On March 31, flight NF21 from Brisbane was cancelled due to a mechanical issue, which took the aircraft out of service.
This has resulted in a weekend of flight cancellations, with passengers stranded across the network. The next departure for Auckland isn’t scheduled until April 5.
Passengers expressed their disbelief that so much was riding on this one plane, and that a replacement could not be found.
“Yes, Air Vanuatu only has one big plane for flights to Aus,” tweeted Laura Turner, who was told to expect at least four more nights in Port Vila.
Passengers were left waiting in Auckland and Port Vila, being told to expect updates on Monday. Call centres and customer service were not open over the weekend.
On Saturday the airline advised international passengers that flights had been cancelled and that it would be covering accommodation and food expenses for affected travellers.
“Air Vanuatu has reached out to partner airlines for support in flying the affected passengers this weekend while their aircraft is awaiting parts. However, unfortunately there are no additional services available at this time,” said a statement from the airline.
Air Vanuatu told passengers in Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland that there would be no services until Tuesday at the earliest.
Natalie Snowdon from Kerikeri, who had prior experience of disruption travelling with Air Vanuatu, was expecting to travel to Port Vila this weekend. Exactly three years ago, she and her partner were stranded in Vanuatu by the Covid disruptions.
“We love Vanuatu but their airline is rubbish! It will destroy their tourism which is so sad,” she wrote in a Facebook update.
Passenger Michael Heuberger said he and his family were looking forward to their first trip overseas since Covid described the situation as “unfortunate”.
“I haven’t been able to get in touch with the customer service at all. And the hotels I’ve booked in Vanuatu refuse to give us a refund,” he said.
This is not the first time Air Vanuatu has had issues with its sole narrow body passenger jet.
Over Christmas and the busy summer travel window, it was hampered by separate issues with the 737 aircraft.
From December 18, the 7-year old Boeing 737-800, YJ-AV8 spent 3 days grounded for repairs, with long-reaching impacts for travellers.
The majority of Vanuatu’s 15,000 arrivals over Christmas and New Year were forced to travel by boat, according to RNZ Pacific.
