Transportation

Vanuatu is an island nation made up of over 80 inhabited islands with 200,000 people spread out over 860,000 sq km of territory.  The land mass is 12,300 sq km and there are 12 primary islands.  Transportation is primarily by sea and air.

Air travel to and from Vanuatu is provided almost exclusively by Air Vanuatu.  This a government owned airline that flies a single 737-300 aircraft.  This plane makes 2 trips most days and calls on Auckland NZ, Brisbane AU, Sydney AU, Nadi Fiji and Noumea New Caledonia.  There is talk of more aircraft in the future.

Flights are expensive with the usual fare being about 75,000 vatu ( $650 USD) for a return ticket with discounts for short stays and increased price for longer stays.  The aircraft provides inadequate capacity at high travel season and flies well below capacity at low season.  Air Vanuatu has stated that they will add aircraft in the future during peak travel periods. 

There is one flight a week from Fiji by Air Pacific and one flight a week by Aircalin from New Caledonia.  A subsidiary of Virgin Airlines is in discussions about extending service from Australia to Vanuatu but this is actively apposed by Air Vanuatu. 

All international flights in and out of Vanuatu go through Port Vila.  For tourists headed for outer islands they will face considerable additional time and expense in reaching their destination.  Domestic flights are provided by another government owned airline called Vanair.  This airline offers flights to many of the islands in Vanuatu.  Most of these flights operate at a big loss.  The airline is losing money and has been forced to sell aircraft to remain solvent.   This is obviously not a sustainable strategy.

A return flight from Port Vila to Luganville on Espiritu Santo costs 26,000 vatu ($225 USD) with a 20% discount offered to tourists.  The flights operate during daylight hours so usually a tourist is required to overnight in Port Vila on the flight in or the flight out.

Sea freight in and out of Vanuatu comes from Australia and New Zealand.  The shipping lines that serve Vanuatu operate older, less economical ships and, in conjunction with the low volume, they are compelled to charge very high shipping rates.  A 20 foot container from Australia to Luganville in northern Vanuatu landed will cost about $4,500 AUD ($3,200 USD).  The cost is about the same in Port VIla with slightly lower shipping offset by higher wharf charges.  This is about the same price as shipping a container from the US to Australia.

Internal sea freight is also very expensive.  The charge is 6,000 vatu ($52 USD) per cubic meter which is about 1/2 of the charge for international sea freight.  These high costs put a heavy burden on local industry to compete outside Vanuatu.  They also represent one of the reasons for the very high prices within Vanuatu.