Vanair

Vanair
IATA ICAO Callsign
X4 ZHI* -
Founded 1965
Ceased operations September 2004
Hubs Bauerfield International Airport
Fleet size 4
Destinations 29
Headquarters Port Villa, Vanuatu

Not to be confused with the Czech airline Van Air Europe

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.

History

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 Francais Air Hebride.[4] In November 1989 the airline was renamed Vanair.[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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air Melanesiae.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.