History
Air Vanuatu was established in early 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. Ansett also took a 40% stake in the new airline, the government of Vanuatu holding the other 60%. 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.
In 1987 the company was re-established with 100% ownership by the government of Vanuatu, 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. Air Vanuatu subsequently bought the aircraft in 1989 and leased it back to Australian for use on that airline's network on days that it was not used by Air Vanuatu. In November 1992 the 727 was replaced by a Boeing 737-400 leased from Australian Airlines. The following year an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante was also leased from Australian, entering service that April to operate flights between Port Vila and Nouméa. The leases on both aircraft continued after Australian was taken over by Qantas in October 1993, with the commercial agreement being rolled-over to Qantas as well. Qantas is deeply involved in the airline's operations to this day; Air Vanuatu uses Qantas' Frequent Flyer program, Qantas codeshares on Air Vanuatu's flights from Australia, and provides 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 same month Bandeirante services ceased when a Saab 2000 entered service. The lease on the Saab 2000 was terminated in March 1999 and in June that year Air Vanuatu commenced using a de Havilland Canada Dash 8 of Vanuatu's government-owned domestic carrier Vanair on weekly services to Nouméa. 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 Director Generals of various Vanuatu government ministries. The ATR 72 made its first revenue flight for Air Vanuatu on 8 November 2009.
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