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Virgin Australia has opted to increase flights between Brisbane and Vanuatu rather than commencing Sydney–Port Vila services shortly.
Starting 9 July, Virgin will fly every day between Brisbane and Port Vila except Thursdays, with two return services on Saturdays. The airline has seen strong demand for Brisbane–Port Vila flights since increasing frequency from two to five per week following the collapse of Air Vanuatu.
According to Virgin Australia’s chief strategy and transformation officer, Alistair Hartley, capacity will likely be further expanded.
“This is the most capacity we have operated into Vanuatu since starting flights in 2004, which is great news for our guests,” Hartley said.
“Today’s announcement will bring total Virgin Australia services between Australia and Vanuatu to up to seven per week, further bolstering the critical connectivity between our two countries and supporting Vanuatu’s growing tourism industry.
“We will also look at options for further growth in peak travel periods like school holidays.”
Virgin Australia is currently the only airline flying between Australia and Vanuatu and was last week given the green light by the International Air Services Commission (IASC) to increase its services with an extra 1,304 seats per week.
“The Commission notes that Virgin Australia is an established international carrier which currently operates scheduled international services between Australia and Vanuatu,” IASC chair Genevieve Butler and commissioner Jane McKeon wrote in their determination.
“The Commission therefore finds that Virgin Australia is reasonably capable of obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals to operate on the route and of using the proposed capacity allocation.”
The news comes soon after Virgin’s main rival Qantas applied to the IASC to move in on the Vanuatu market. The Flying Kangaroo has asked for 1,798 seats per week in each direction for five years, with plans to start Qantas services in August and Jetstar services in October.
Air Vanuatu, a codeshare partner of Qantas, entered voluntary liquidation last month, with liquidator Ernst & Young estimating it owed at least US$66 million (around $99 million) but said it hopes to resume services.
The liquidator has axed 170 of the airline’s 441 staff, saying it is looking to “right-size the company’s cost base” as it proceeds with an expressions of interest campaign and is currently in discussions to resume “critical routes” in the short term to minimise disruption.
Expressions of interest from potential buyers and investors are due by 7 June.
