25 Sep 2023

Air Vanuatu flight cancellations maroon tourists

4:53 pm on 25 September 2023
Air Vanuatu plane lands

Air Vanuatu flights have been disrupted by technical problems. Photo: Hilaire Bule

Passengers have been left stranded as Air Vanuatu cancels flights due to engineering problems.

The flights, some of which have been rescheduled, impact services between Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, Nadi and from Port Vila.

The precise number of flights affected was not available.

In a statement, the airline said despite its best efforts, it is being faced with extended delays.

"The completion of necessary work has encountered unexpected challenges, making it impossible for us to provide an exact timeframe for resuming our regular schedules.

''At this stage, we anticipate the possible resumption of international flights by the end of this week.

"We have engaged Nauru airlines to operate a number of limited services between Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland and Nadi to and from Port Vila. Our teams have been working on re-routing guests via Nadi, Honiara and Brisbane.

"We ask guests on cancelled Air Vanuatu services to not present themselves at the airport for check-in."

Passengers have expressed their frustration on Facebook.

''Here we go again with Air Vanuatu cancelling flights... supposed to be coming home Monday, it's been pushed back to Tuesday, now we are seeing maybe Friday," one woman posted.

One man posted and said he had not been informed at all.

"No contact at all from Air Vanuatu but we all know our flights cancelled from Dive Adventures .. so it appears we rock up to the airport as scheduled and look surprised."

It is not the first time international flights with Air Vanuatu have been disrupted this year, when the airline's only Boeing 737 went out of service.

The carrier is offering refunds to affected passengers.