Foundation and early years Air Vanuatu was established in 1981 after Vanuatu gained independence from the United Kingdom and France the previous year. The assistance of
Ansett Airlines was sought, and a five-year agreement put in place for Ansett to provide aircraft and operating staff. The first Air Vanuatu flight, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 owned and operated by Ansett, departed
Sydney for Port Vila on 5 September 1981. In May 1982, a
Boeing 737-200 of
Polynesian Airlines replaced the DC-9; this was replaced in turn by an Ansett 737-200 in October 1985. In March 1986, the agreement with Ansett expired and was not renewed; this had the effect of grounding the airline. after a new commercial agreement was signed with
Australian Airlines; weekly Sydney – Port Vila flights re-commenced on 19 December using a
Boeing 727-200 chartered from Australian. Qantas would be deeply involved in the airline's operations for the rest of its existence; Air Vanuatu used the
Qantas Frequent Flyer program, while Qantas codeshared on Air Vanuatu's flights from Australia, and provided maintenance and pilot training services as well. Air Vanuatu terminated the lease on the Qantas Boeing 737-400 after it took delivery of its own
Boeing 737-300 in April 1997. The lease on the Saab 2000 was terminated in March 1999, and in June that year, Air Vanuatu began using a
De Havilland Canada Dash 8 from Vanuatu's government-owned domestic carrier
Vanair on weekly services to Nouméa.
21st century In April 2001, Air Vanuatu
merged with Vanair, however the merger was reversed only five months later. In November 2003, an
ATR 42 entered service for use on domestic routes in competition with Vanair. In September 2004, Air Vanuatu again merged with Vanair. In January 2008, Air Vanuatu replaced its Boeing 737-300 with a new
Boeing 737-800. Three
Harbin Y-12s were added to the fleet in early 2009, and in October the same year the airline took delivery of a new
ATR 72–500 aircraft to replace its ATR 42. Four days after the ATR 72 arrived at Port Vila, the Board of Air Vanuatu was sacked and replaced by Directors General of various Vanuatu government ministries. The ATR 72 made its first revenue flight for Air Vanuatu on 8 November 2009. A second ATR 72–500 was delivered to the airline in November 2014. In 2016, the Harbin Y-12s were phased out and replaced by
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters. In July 2020, Air Vanuatu announced a major set of changes for the airline due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. With the reshuffling of orders and the shrinking and localization of the management team, the CEO Derek Nice stepped down, being temporarily replaced by Joseph Laloyer, until a replacement could be found. This included delaying the delivery of the four
Airbus A220 aircraft it had on order, and a strategic review of its network. In May 2024, the airline was placed into
liquidation with
EY appointed as liquidator. Due to the collapse of Air Vanuatu, 1,458 Vanuatuan seasonal workers were left stranded in New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand confirmed that it was working with employers to support the workers. The airline owed creditors US$74 million. At the time of being placed in administration, it had six aircraft and 441 employees across Vanuatu, Australia and New Zealand. Its biggest aircraft, a leased
Boeing 737, was repossessed in
Melbourne. It had also been reported that only two of the airlines' aircraft remained operational, due to awaited maintenance for the remaining fleet, while the available financial information of the company was deemed "significantly out of date." On 22 May 2024,
Solomon Airlines began weekly direct flights between
Auckland and
Port Vila to fill the gap left by Air Vanuatu. In August 2024, limited domestic services resumed after an injection of funds by the Government of Vanuatu. == Destinations ==