AIRPORTS VANUATU SUPPLY CHAIN
PAC I F I C PA R A D I S E Through landmark projects and events, Airports Vanuatu is supporting the country’s socioeconomic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic Writer: Jack Salter Project Manager: Ryan Gray
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viation is absolutely critical to the economy of Vanuatu. Providing essential transport links for tourism, trade, and disaster response and recovery, Vanuatu’s aviation industry is the third largest in the Pacific (excluding Australia and New Zealand) in terms of traffic size and complexity, after Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Home to white sandy beaches, beautiful clear waters and diverse coral reefs, travel goes firmly hand in hand with tourism in Vanuatu, another important pillar of the island nation’s economy that provides roughly a quarter of its GDP and employs thousands across the country. Airports Vanuatu (AVL), founded as a government entity in 2000, is the proud owner and operator 158 | APAC Outlook issue 55
of Vanuatu’s three main airports: Bauerfield International Airport, Santo Pekoa International Airport, and Tanna Airport. Located on the paradisaic islands of Efaté, Espiritu Santo, and Tanna, respectively, they account for 87 percent of all scheduled flights in Vanuatu. The three airports work together with airline partners to facilitate safe, secure and reliable air access, both for international visitors travelling to and from Vanuatu and for natives flying domestically and to the rest of the world.
TRAVEL RECOVERY Travel has, however, been heavily disrupted in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovering global air connectivity whilst balancing the risks of COVID-19 has been a challenging task for AVL, who early on recognised the need for strong measures to protect public health. Mercifully, as the world learns to live with COVID-19, domestic air travel in Vanuatu is now showing signs of recovery. Passenger movements across the company’s three airports were up by 42 percent in August last year compared to 2020, although still down from 2019 when markets and borders were fully open prior to the pandemic.
Aerial view of the Port Vila city and bay with the Iririki resort island in Vanuatu’s capital city
The safe opening of Vanuatu’s border is a government priority in support of the country’s socioeconomic recovery from the COVID19 pandemic. As such, the Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) has been working with AVL, as well as customs and immigration agencies, to process planning for the opening of safe travel pathways with selected countries. A milestone event in AVL’s journey to reopening the country’s borders once again would take place a few months later in October 2021, with the successful departure of seasonal workers for Christchurch in New Zealand (NZ). After months of planning, this was the first quarantine-free flight to depart from Vanuatu since the
