Vanair
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Founded | 1965 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ceased operations | September 2004 | ||||||
Hubs | Bauerfield International Airport | ||||||
Fleet size | 4 | ||||||
Destinations | 29 | ||||||
Headquarters | Port Vila,Vanuatu |
Vanairwas a domesticairlinebased inVanuatu.The airline flew to 29 destinations on 18 of Vanuatu's 83 islands, and was wholly owned by the Vanuatu government.
History
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Air_Melanesiae_De_Havilland_Australia_DHA-3_Drover_Mk3_BWU_Wheatley.jpg/220px-Air_Melanesiae_De_Havilland_Australia_DHA-3_Drover_Mk3_BWU_Wheatley.jpg)
The airline commenced operations asAir Melanesiæin 1965 as a joint venture between two existing airlines, the British-ownedNew Hebrides Airways(founded in 1963) and French-ownedSociété Néo-Hébridaise de Transports Aériens,known asHebridair(founded 1964).[1]New Hebrides Airways contributed ade Havilland Australia DHA-3 Droverto the operation,[2]while Hebridair provided aDornier Do 28,however the Do 28 crashed in 1966.[3]By the beginning of the 1970s the airline was controlled byQantasandBritish Overseas Airways Corporationvia their shareholdings in New Hebrides Airways, and byUnion des Transports Aérienswhich had taken over Hebridair and renamed itSociété Française des Nouvelles-Hébrides.[4]SirDennis BuchananofTalair,Papua New Guinea bought out Qantas BA and UTA in the late 1970s and ran it very successfully with an Islander, a Trislander, several DH6s and an Embraer Bandeirante, until the Government wanted to take over, and denied the renewal of the chief engineers work permit. The Government subsequently set upVanairas a government-owned company. The Government-owned airline was run successfully under the leadership of Mr Murray Pope but following his departure the airline nearly collapsed with the introduction of an expensive lease on a Dash 8 aircraft. As it was going broke it was merged with the Government's International Airline, Air Vanuatu and de-merged again in 2001/2 only to go bankrupt again, and to be re-merged with Air Vanuatu.[5]In 2004, it merged with Vanuatu's government-ownedflag carrier,Air Vanuatu.[6][7]
Fleet
[edit]At the time of the merger with Air Vanuatu the Vanair fleet included:[8]
1981
[edit]1971
[edit]- 5 Britten-Norman Islander[4]
- 1de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover[4]
Incidents and accidents
[edit]- 8 May 1999- A Vanairde Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otterwith twelve people on board crashed into the sea nearPort Viladuring heavy rain. Seven people were killed.[10]
- 25 July 1991- ABritten-Norman Islandercrashed into a mountain nearOlpoi Airport.All nine people on board were killed.[10]
- 30 January 1990- A VanairBritten-Norman Trislandercrashed. Details unknown.[10]
References
[edit]- ^Pierre Bourgeois biographical informationArchived2011-10-09 at theWayback Machineretrieved 18 November 2009
- ^"World Airline Survey",Flight International13 April 1967, p556 (online archive version),retrieved 18 November 2009
- ^"World Airline Survey",Flight International13 April 1967, p591 (online archive version),retrieved 18 November 2009
- ^abc"World Airlines",Flight International6 May 1971, p615 (online archive version),retrieved 18 November 2009
- ^"Directory: World Airlines",Flight International30 March - 5 April 2004, p90 (online archive version),retrieved 18 November 2009
- ^Vanair - X4 - Port Vila - Vanuatu - Mr Mark Roberts, Acting Chief Executive & General Manager - ATI, Air Transport Intelligence - ATI – Air Transport Intelligence from Reed Business Information, UK
- ^"Vanuatu A-Z Visitors Guide - vanuatu,vanair,vat,value added tax,vats,vanuatu amateur theatrical society,videos,vila chaumieres,visas,volcanoes, volcano post office".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-03-14.Retrieved2007-03-15.
- ^Flight International,3–9 October 2006
- ^ab"Commuter Airline Directory",Flight International7 November 1981, p1390 (online archive version),retrieved 18 November 2009
- ^abc"Vanair incidents".Aviation Safety Network.Retrieved21 December2008.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
Air Melanesiae was Privetly Owned and Mostly by Sir Denise Buchanan He was forced to Move on and took Most of his Air craft to Australia the Government set up a New Co. and that was called Air Van