Flights suspended from Vanuatu

[Kalm with Kava]

Not sure if anyone saw this or not. Qantas, Air New Zealand and Fiji Airways have all suspended flights into Port Vila. Sad news for a country very dependant on tourism especially in the aftermath of rebuilding from the hurricane. Not to mention very difficult to get kava out of the country.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...s/news-story/ba1dd9cd06decf946860c03ad62a5996

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

Damn that sucks, runway seemed fine to me, but I don't know about any of that. If it prompts them to invest in their airport, maybe it will turn out to be a good thing. I noticed Fiji Nadi airport was in the process of a pretty big update.
I didn't see Fiji Airways listed as one of the airlines that suspended flights...and Air Vanuatu will still run. If that's the case, we can still get there from here. Also, I wonder if this has any impact on flights that land on Santo.

​

 

[Kalm with Kava]

Interesting, Fiji Air removed Vila as an option over the weekend. It looks like they reconsidered seeing the opportunity there.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[verticity]

This little bit at the end adds insult to injury:

The elections come as Vanuatu loses its voting rights at the UN because it is in arrears paying its annual contribution to the UN regular budget.

What the?? It's a poor country for fucksake. Meanwhile, as of 2014:

The [UN] funding gap is just over $950m including about $800m owed by the US, $77m by Brazil and $28m by Venezuela.

I can't find any more recent source saying whether we are all paid up now, but why pick on poor Vanuatu?

 

[kasa_balavu]

Fiji Airways still flies to Vanuatu. They haven't suspended flights because unlike Qantas and Air New Zealand, they don't fly jets to that destination.
The ATR-72 that Fiji Airways flies to Port Vila is a turboprop, and they aren't as susceptible to damage from runway debris as jet aircraft are.