Air Vanuatu serves Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney…with one 737-800. So when that aircraft broke down, the ripple effect was tusanmi-like.
Air Vanuatu Broken 737-800 Leads To Cascading Cancellations Across Australia + New Zealand
Air Vanuatu is the flag carrier of Vanuatu with a hub at Bauerfield International Airport in Port Vila. The airline was born in 1981 with the help of Ansett Airlines after Vanuatu gained independence from the United Kingdom. The carrier serves Australia and New Zealand with its single mid-range aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 it took delivery of in 2008.
On March 31, 2023, the 737-800 was set to operate from Brisbane (BNE) to Port Vila (VLI) as NF21…when the aircraft broke down.
Not only did that strand a plane full of passengers in Brisbane, but the ripple effect stranded passengers across the network, all who were reliant upon that single 737 aircraft operating.
When passengers in other cities attempted to call Air Vanuatu when they received word their flight was canceled, they found that the call center is not open on weekends. Passengers in Brisbane were (nad continue to be) provided with food and sleeping accommodations.
The carrier has cancelled all of its international mid-haul service until at least April 8, 2023. A statement released earlier today offers an apology for the unforeseen meltdown:
Air Vanuatu has advised this morning that it is with deep regret that they now are cancelling all flights on the New Zealand and Australia routes up to and including Friday 7th of April. This announcement follows recent news regarding the parts Air Vanuatu is waiting on for their Boeing 737 aircraft. These parts are being sourced with urgent support from Boeing offices in the United States and Australia however are causing more delays to operations.
While the carrier did eventually try to re-route passengers on other airlines (on Aircalin, Fiji Airways, or Virgin Australia), it did not have much luck:
“Air Vanuatu has reached out to partner airlines for support in flying the affected passengers this weekend while their aircraft is awaiting parts. However, unfortunately there are no additional services available at this time.”
Passengers traveling to Vanuatu on holiday were also left holding the bag. One family told The New Zealand Herald:
“I haven’t been able to get in touch with the customer service at all. And the hotels I’ve booked in Vanuatu refuse to give us a refund.”
CONCLUSION
When your entire international flight network rests upon one aircraft, there is no room for mechanical error. Guests attempting to travel on Air Vanuatu this week are learning this first-hand.
image: Air Vanuatu
The term for this is “bottleneck” or “single point of failure”. I think it’s a good allegory for another article about AA FA’s in a conflict over sick days. Modern management philosophy espoused by many CEO’s has been “barebone” costs or as some joke: Hire only enough people to get the job done… minus one. The plan was that if you had a team of employees who could get a job done under stress if one of their colleagues didn’t show up, why not just make that your new standard? Oh, and then cut headcount by 1 again and see what happens.
It’s all “fun and games” until irregular operations. It’s funny when this happens in the airline industry because as passengers, we’re told to get to the airport two hours early in case of bad traffic or long security lines, but the CEOs of some of these companies seem to think that nothing can go wrong with operations that involve so many moving parts and people?
I’m sure none of the passengers ever knew that Vanautu. Owns a single aircraft. Not a good idea owning one jet and relying solely on said jet. What were they thinking?
How do you do scheduled maintenance with only one aircraft?
I have to defend the airline in this instance.
As the ex-Director of Operations at Air Van, I was responsible for the introduction of the B737-800 to the airline, and while realising that any major failure of the aircraft could cause a problem like this, the arrangements the airline had at the time with Qantas were such that they managed the aircraft maintenance (every Tuesday evening for routine servicing in Brisbane for the enquiring correspondent below…), and provided the airline with a replacement B737 from the Qantas fleet for all major maintenance and/or groundings.
So far, this has worked exceptionally well – just ask any other operator with a single aircraft flying international routes on a complex schedule how their operation has fared without a major disruption in the 25 years this arrangement has been in place…
I’m no longer in the loop as far as the airline is concerned, so have no real idea of what happened here, but my guess would be that Qantas either no longer has the old agreement we struck in place, or simply were unable (or more likely, knowing how ruthless a business partner Qantas can be at times) were unwilling to honour the old agreement and loan Air Van a replacement 737.
I should close by noting two things – firstly, Vanuatu is a poor third world nation – albeit situated in Paradise – and to be able to support an airline flying to four countries in the southwest Pacific with a single Boeing is quite simply all the country can afford… and to do so in this fashion for this long is no small feat.
Secondly, the airline recently ordered two Airbus A220-300 aircraft, and while this isn’t going to be a complete panacea when it comes to an unscheduled ops, it will help avoid such a situation.
So… fair go folks, they do a hell of a job with the one jet they can afford to operate, but even the occasional Boeing breaks hard, and conjuring up a magic fix has its limitations.
No outfits like iAero (Swift) GlobalX, Hillwood, etc. in that part of the world that could fill in temporarily?
As a frequent traveler to Vanuatu that single 737 is the aircraft I have flown on more than any other airplane in the world.
I have been stuck many times with delays on that aircraft and, in my mind, it would be much better if Air Vanuatu abandoned all international flying and let the bigger airlines…Qantas, Virgin, Air New Zealand, and Fiji Airways do it. Of course I was there last week when they announced their new fleet plans and they are going to pursue getting a second 737. Maybe that will help.
The story about the 737 is only half the story of AIr Vanuatu. Their inter-island service is worse. Perhaps they are short an ATR aircraft but the lack of service is hitting hard the outer islands. I was the only customer at the resort I was staying in on Tanna Island on my last two trips.
This is a case of an airline destroying the economic prospects of a country.
Virgin Australia has resumed service to Brisbane now and I was on the first flight. It left 90 minutes late and I missed my international connecting flight. Maybe Vanuatu aviation is cursed!
PS: The aircraft was new in 2016
Boeing, Airbus, and engine mfr’s offer service contracts, and even sells high $ items like engines under “power by the hour” contracted rates.
If a 737 mechanical issue grounds an airline for days, they opted OUT of an above offer.
Only the bigger operators (Southwest, United, etc) of that fleet/model can safely opt-out of the above profit centers, because they stock their own spares, and have trained mechanics (sometimes flying & sitting next to passengers in Row 7!)
Poor airline/country or not….. If your only two fleet status % are 0% grounded or 100% grounded, you will soon have many unhappy customers