Vanuatu tourism invites return of Air New Zealand and Virgin

Transcript

Vanuatu tourism will be launching a major marketing push in New Zealand and Australia to coincide with today's completion of emergency repairs to the country's international airport.

The US$1.2 million dollar repair work, which began in late February, was carried out after safety concerns raised about the Bauerfield runway in January led to the suspension of Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand flights to Port Vila. 

The chairman of the Vanuatu Hotels and Resorts Association says the industry suffered greatly from the suspension.

Bryan Death told Koroi Hawkins the final work on the runway is being completed today.

TRANSCRIPT:

BRYAN DEATH: Yes the government press release just out this morning indicates the line marking will be completed today and that will conclude this repair work. 

KOROI HAWKINS: And do you know if that means Virgin and Air New Zealand are their flights ready to be coming in have you, know if there is bookings available for that?

BD: Well I am sure that both airlines will want to inspect the repair work but Virgin has already opened their booking engines from the 23rd of May so assuming they are happy with their inspection of the runway then we anticipate that that will take place. Air New Zealand has already made a press statement that they as well as seeing that the Airport runway repairs are satisfactory they would want to see that there is this long term commitment by the government to the full overlay. And they would want to see an agreement between the World Bank and the Vanuatu government as well as the temporary repairs that have been completed. 

KH: You mentioned the airport never having been closed has the cancellation or suspension of their flights affected the tourism or visitor economy in anyway?

BD: Dramatically, worse effect than Cyclone Pam.

KH: And so this would be a relief for operators to have these conditions met and hopefully airlines back on line?

BD: Absolutely I mean New Zealand is a very important market as is Australia for us and you know Virgin is three flights a week out of Australia and Air New Zealand is another three out of New Zealand so you know that is a lot of passengers we are not seeing. And thankfully Air Vanuatu has been servicing Australia through Sydney and Brisbane throughout this process but that is just one Aircraft. 

KH: And the longer term repairs is that for a full upgrade of the airport? Do you know if there is any talks about that being discussed at the moment or is that for the back burner for the government?

BD: The government is in discussions I believe thise week with the World Bank and hopefully something is concluded there which will lead to an agreement being signed which will enable tenders at some stage this year to go out to contractors with a view to completing a full overlay of the runway.

KH: Any final thoughts on the situation at the moment?

BD: Well it is pretty dire for Tourism because the, especially the New Zealand market which has been very, very hard hit. And Vanuatu is about to launch a major TV commercials in both, next month in New Zealand and Australia. And we would hope that by the time they hit the airwaves that in fact the, all the air services can be resumed.