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Virgin Australia gets the green light to add more Vanuatu flights; QF/JQ pending

With Air Vanuatu’s planes still grounded following the announcement of its liquidation earlier this month, The International Air Services Commission (IASC) has awarded more seats to Virgin Australia (VA) between Australia and Port Vila.

With Air Vanuatu’s planes still grounded following the announcement of its liquidation earlier this month, The International Air Services Commission (IASC) has awarded more seats to Virgin Australia (VA) between Australia and Port Vila.

Beginning in June, Virgin Australia will ramp up its services from Brisbane to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, and introduce an extra 1,304 seats per week on reconfigured planes.

Virgin will have the extra capacity for five years from 28 May 2024 and must fully use it by 31 December.

Virgin Australia had already further boosted its Vanuatu services from twice to five times per week from Brisbane to Port Vila a fortnight ago at the Australian government’s request for the remainder of May and June.

The carrier also plans to add seven more weekly flights from east coast cities to Vanuatu, which would equate to four times the number of trips it currently operates.

Currently, VA is the only carrier flying to Vanuatu from Australia.

However, Qantas (QF) has applied to the International Air Services Commission (IASC) to operate up to five QF flights a week to Port Vila from August 2024.

The Qantas Group also applied for Jetstar (JQ) to operate up to four weekly services using 232-seat Airbus A321 NEO aircraft from October, with proposed JQ services beginning in October.

The sad plight of Air Vanuatu

An Air Vanuatu plane preparing for take-off in 2019.
An Air Vanuatu plane preparing for take-off before the liquidation.

Earlier this month, Air Vanuatu announced it had entered voluntary administration. At the time, Its liquidator, Ernst & Young Australia (EY), said it expects the carrier to resume normal operations “as soon as possible.”

Air Vanuatu had reportedly accrued about $110 million in debt with few assets to sell off to facilitate a possible return for the airline.

As it stands, there has been no update on the airline’s future. 

An EY spokesperson at the time told Karryon, “Customers and travellers are always the highest priority… because we want to get people home”.

“The primary focus from EY’s perspective is obviously to work with the existing management team to ensure that they can get the airline into a position where it’s in a more secure footing to be able to return to normal and to resume operations,” they said. 

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