Vanair was a domestic

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. The airline flew to 29 destinations on 18 of Vanuatu's 83 islands, and was wholly owned by the Vanuatu government.

History

Air Melanesiae De Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover Mk3 BWU Wheatley

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).Pierre Bourgeois biographical information
retrieved 18 November 2009 New Hebrides Airways contributed a

de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover The de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover is a small transport aircraft that was built by de Havilland Australia (DHA) in the 1940s and 1950s. The aircraft had some similarities with the two-engine British-built de Havilland Dove but used a t ...

to the operation, while Hebridair provided a

Dornier Do 28 The type designation Dornier Do 28 comprises two different twin-engine STOL utility aircraft, manufactured by Dornier Flugzeugbau GmbH. Most of them served with the German Air Force and '' Marineflieger'' and other air forces around the world in ...

, however the Do 28 crashed in 1966. By the beginning of the 1970s the airline was controlled by

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

and

British Overseas Airways Corporation British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...

via their shareholdings in New Hebrides Airways, and by

Union des Transports Aériens Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

which had taken over Hebridair and renamed it Société Française des Nouvelles-Hébrides."World Airlines", ''Flight International'' 6 May 1971, p615 (online archive version)
retrieved 18 November 2009 Sir Denise Buchanan of Tale Air Fame Bought out Qantas BA and UTA in the late 1979's and ran it very usefully with an Islander, a Trislander, several DH6 and an Embrea Bandrati, until the Government wanted to take over, so they ran him out of town by denying the renewal of the chief engines work permit. The Government subsequently set up Van Air as a government owned company. The Government owned airline was run successfully under the leadership of Mr Murray Pope but following his departure the airline nearly collapsed with the introduction of an expensive lease on a Dash 8 air craft. As it was going broke it was merged with the Government's International Airline, Air Vanuatu and de-merges again in 2001/2 only to go broke again, and to be re-merged with Air Vanuatu. In 2004, it merged with Vanuatu's government-owned

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

Air Vanuatu Air Vanuatu is an airline with its head office in the Air Vanuatu House, Port Vila, Vanuatu. It is Vanuatu's national flag carrier, operating to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and points in the South Pacific. Its main base is Bauerfiel ...

Fleet

At the time of the merger with Air Vanuatu the Vanair fleet included:

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

, 3–9 October 2006 *4 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 300

1981

Britten-Norman Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial air ...

"Commuter Airline Directory", ''Flight International'' 7 November 1981, p1390 (online archive version)
retrieved 18 November 2009 *1

Britten-Norman Trislander The Britten-Norman Trislander (more formally designated the BN-2A Mk III Trislander) is an 18-seat three-engined piston-powered civilian utility aircraft produced in the 1970s and early 1980s by Britten-Norman of Britain. These STOL capable ai ...

1971

*5 Britten-Norman Islander *1

Incidents and accidents

*8 May 1999 - A Vanair

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

with twelve people on board crashed into the sea near

Port Vila Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate. Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...

during heavy rain. Seven people were killed. *25 July 1991 - A

crashed into a mountain near Olpoi Airport. All nine people on board were killed. *30 January 1990 - A Vanair

crashed. Details unknown.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Air Melanesiae
Vanair
Air Melanesiae was Privetly Owned and Mostly by Sir Denise Buchanan He was forced to Move on and took Most of his Air craft to Australia the Government set up a New Co. and that was called Air Van Defunct airlines of Vanuatu Airlines established in 1965 Airlines disestablished in 2004