Port Orly beach on the island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu. Photo: 123RF
Solomon Airlines is adding a new direct flight from Auckland to the popular Espiritu Santo island in Vanuatu.
It comes three months after Air Vanuatu suddenly went into liquidation, leaving hundreds of holidaymakers stranded.
Rosalind Cox runs Tamanu on the Beach Resort in Port Vila.
She believed the demise of the national carrier gave the island's tourism industry a new lease of life - but it was a long time coming.
"We've known over the last two years of so many people that have been impacted by disrupted flights from Vanuatu, that it became a bit of a joke really that whether people were actually going to make the destination.
"Not great for how it looks for the country, but it needed to happen."
She said tourism operators had already been struggling for years and international flight disruptions added to the challenge.
"[We've had] a pretty tough few years, probably a tough 10 years with flight disruptions on the back of cyclones and runway issues."
But since the national carrier went belly-up, several airlines - including Fiji Airways and Solomon Islands - had picked up flights to Vanuatu from Australia and New Zealand
Cox believed this would boost tourism.
"It gives the tourist or a wholesaler confidence that the airline will actually fly to the destination.
"It's definitely been a breath of fresh air."
And she was already noticing a difference in the reservations.
"It has certainly picked up so from mid-July we've seen a significant increase in bookings, which is fantastic.
"Out of Australia, there's flights every day now from Brisbane with multiple carriers."
A Solomon Airlines airbus. Photo: lasafotografix
By the end of 2024, five airlines were expected to offer more than 20 return flights to Vanuatu from Australia and New Zealand.
Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chair Glen Craig said that would give the Pacific nation a much needed stimulus.
"As the tourism sector gets confident again in Australia and New Zealand in selling the destination that there's proper real, substantial airlines flying in, we'll see numbers increase and flights increase.
"It's looking pretty positive for next year."
But he said the tourism sector would not be fully back on its feet until the government found a solution for domestic flights
"We're hoping there's some improvements there and it's out of liquidation fairly quickly and that there's a new domestic air operator coming in."
He said domestic airlines traditionally ran at a loss in Vanuatu and the wider Pacific, so the government support would be needed for "quite some time into the future".
Solomon Airlines and Fiji Airways are currently the only airlines offering flights from New Zealand to Vanuatu.
Solomon Airlines has been operating two direct flights a week from Auckland to Port Vila for the past three months.
Since then, nearly 2000 people have flown the route - but Craig said it was not Solomon Solomon Airlines that brought the bulk of the tourists to Vanuatu.
Air Vanuatu went into liquidation in May. Photo: Hilaire Bule
"Solomon Airlines, that's good. But you predominantly find that they are they're they're carrying seasonal worker traffic."
He said the "big saviours" were Qantas and Jetstar, which would commence flights from Australia next month.
Virgin had also gone from three flights a week to seven, which put Vanuatu on the "level peg" with its competitors, Samoa and Fiji, Craig said.
Tourism operator Rosalind Cox said if Solomon Airlines wanted to be the first choice for New Zealanders visiting Vanuatu, it needed to offer competitive fares
"For me, we looked at flights with Solomons [Airlines] and the prices out of Auckland were absolutely ridiculous."
Cox said she chose Fiji Airways instead.
But Solomon Airline's commercial manager John Wopereis says the airline offered passengers a unique advantage, as it was the only airline offering a direct flight from Auckland to Port Vila.
The flight took just over three hours, whereas the same journey with other airlines took up to 36 hours with two stop overs.
Wopereis said the airline was "really excited" to announce the direct flights to Santo, which was one of Vanuatu's most popular tourist destinations.
