As travel to Vanuatu from Australia continues its “strong” return, Air Vanuatu is considering increasing capacity between Australia’s two largest cities and Port Vila, according to the carrier’s chief commercial manager, Greg Wilson.
In an interview with Karryon at TOK TOK 2023 in Vanuatu, Wilson says Air Vanuatu is “looking at extra Melbourne [flights], and we’re looking at increasing our Sydney [flights]”.
“At the moment, we’re operating five Sydneys and we’re looking at perhaps bumping that to six and then to seven eventually. At least having a daily Sydney,” he says.
Melbourne-Port Vila flights could be doubled or even tripled to threes-times-weekly.
“One extra flight a week [to Melbourne]… and if there’s demand that warrants it, perhaps even considering up to three, but it comes back down to part of our fleet renewal discussions,” remarks Wilson.
Wilson also talked up Air Vanuatu’s recently announced Brisbane schedule, which brings ex-BNE flights into Port Vila at “just after two o’clock in the afternoon” as opposed to 11pm.
“So it’s much friendlier times,” he says.
On loads from Australia, the remainder of 2023 was looking “pretty strong”, with good numbers through to the end of January 2024. Melbourne, in particular, was doing “extremely well at the moment for us”.
Second gateway
Meanwhile, the carrier’s recently re-launched Brisbane-Santo service was seeing “some very good numbers as well”.
“We are now … just continuing to work with the Vanuatu Tourism Office to build awareness of the destination. And just getting more people aware of a second gateway other than Port Vila,” Wilson says.
“We have scheduled the flights with very good connectivity for domestic connections so all your out-ports, like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, all connect really well into Brisbane, then after that, it’s a two-and-a-half hour flight.”
While it’s hardly a rigorous process to negotiate Port Vila Airport, Vanuatu’s second hub is even more convenient, according to Wilson.
“I think one of the draw cards for Santos is … you get off the plane, you go through customs and immigration and you’re out of the building and onto your hotel, so the process is very fast. You know you’re not having to navigate and fight crowds to collect bags and stuff.”
Challenges remain
While Air Vanuatu is happy with loads and forward bookings, the airline has not been without its struggles.
Chief among these have been a number of recent flight cancellations – or as Wilson puts it, rescheduling.
“I know people say we’re cancelling, but I think the majority of the flights are being rescheduled rather than being cancelled,” he says.
Semantics aside, he notes it is “something we are very conscious about”.
“And we are putting things in place to try and mitigate these cancellations moving forward,” he adds.
With staff shortages largely behind the challenges, Wilson says the carrier had been working hard this year to recruit additional personnel. This includes boosting the NF engineering team and pilot numbers, which he predicts will return to a full complement by January 2024.
Agent appreciation
With the “majority” of Air Vanuatu’s business still coming through travel advisors, Wilson says agents were “extremely important” for the airline.
“We value that partnership with them and I think it’s going to continue for us.”
“I think there’s always been talk of people moving away from travel agents and doing their own bookings. But post-COVID … it’s highlighted the importance of having travel agents who are up to date with what is happening with destinations, health requirements, and entry requirements, which can change. So yeah, they’re important to us.”
