Vanair

Vanair was a domestic airline based in Vanuatu. The airline flew to 29 destinations on 18 of Vanuatu's 83 islands, and was wholly owned by the Vanuatu government.

Vanair
IATA ICAO Callsign
X4 ZHI* -
Founded1965
Ceased operationsSeptember 2004
HubsBauerfield International Airport
Fleet size4
Destinations29
HeadquartersPort Vila, Vanuatu
Not to be confused with the Czech airline Van Air Europe.

History
Air Melanesiæ de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover at Bankstown Airport (early 1970s).

The airline commenced operations as Air Melanesiæ in 1965 as a joint venture between two existing airlines, the British-owned New Hebrides Airways (founded in 1963) and French-owned Société Néo-Hébridaise de Transports Aériens, known as Hebridair (founded 1964).[1] New Hebrides Airways contributed a de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover to the operation,[2] while Hebridair provided a Dornier Do 28, however the Do 28 crashed in 1966.[3] By the beginning of the 1970s the airline was controlled by Qantas and British Overseas Airways Corporation via their shareholdings in New Hebrides Airways, and by Union des Transports Aériens which had taken over Hebridair and renamed it Société Française des Nouvelles-Hébrides.[4] Sir Dennis Buchanan of Talair, 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 up Vanair as 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-owned flag carrier, Air Vanuatu.[6][7]

Fleet

At the time of the merger with Air Vanuatu the Vanair fleet included:[8]

1981

1971

Incidents and accidents

References
  1. Pierre Bourgeois biographical information Archived 2011-10-09 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 18 November 2009
  2. "World Airline Survey", Flight International 13 April 1967, p556 (online archive version), retrieved 18 November 2009
  3. "World Airline Survey", Flight International 13 April 1967, p591 (online archive version), retrieved 18 November 2009
  4. "World Airlines", Flight International 6 May 1971, p615 (online archive version), retrieved 18 November 2009
  5. "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International 30 March - 5 April 2004, p90 (online archive version), retrieved 18 November 2009
  6. 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
  7. "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 from the original on 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
  8. Flight International, 3–9 October 2006
  9. "Commuter Airline Directory", Flight International 7 November 1981, p1390 (online archive version), retrieved 18 November 2009
  10. "Vanair incidents". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air Melanesiae.

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

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