Virgin Australia has resumed flights to Vanuatu about four months after it suspended services between Brisbane and Port Vila because of the poor state of the runway.
The first flight from Brisbane yesterday marks the resumption of the airline’s three times weekly service to Bauerfield.
Airports Vanuatu CEO Jason Rakau is pleased the airline can resume flights to Port Vila.
“We are glad to see the Virgin tail back at our gateway airport and look forward to working closely with all our client airlines to ensure their continued services to Vanuatu”.
The return of Virgin will be a welcome boost for the Vanuatu economy but more specifically, the tourism industry which has been severely impacted by the cancellations earlier this year.
Virgin Australia suspended flights between Brisbane and Vanuatu, after Air New Zealand and Qantas, due to the condition of the runway.
The World Bank made available a $US59 million loan to cover both the just-completed short term and long-term upgrades of the runway.
The Minister for Infrastructure and Public Utilities Mr Jotham Napat, was also fully satisfied with the standard and quality of the emergency repairs done to the country’s main international airport at Bauerfield when he visited the completed project at the end of last month.
Minister Napat, was accompanied by a World Bank team led by the institution’s Regional Director, Mr. Franz Drees-Gross, conducted a visit to Bauerfield more than a week ago to see for themselves the finished product.
The World Bank team included Mr. Aldo Giovannitti (Air Transport Analyst), Christopher De Sario (Co-Task Team leader of VAIP), Nancy Wells (WB, Development Coordinator, Vanuatu), Lasse Melgaard (Senior Operations Officer for South Pacific), Mr. Darin Cusack (Director of Technical and Fiduciary Services Unit for Pacific Aviation Investment Project) and government officials from MIPU, VPMU and AVL.
The team was duly impressed with the quality of the remedial works carried out by New Zealand contractors, Fulton Hogan, under what was indeed a very tight schedule.