Air Vanuatu

Do not book with this airline ever – Absolute Thievery. Booked Flights with them for over $2600. Less than two weeks later airline went into liquidation. Nobody will cover via insurance because of liquidation offered us four cents on the dollar back from our original $2600. Absolute rubbish. also, still continued to book flights through their liquidation.

Terrible - 6 flight changes for one week holiday – Do not fly this airline. They changed our flights on 6 occasions including the day before we left. They changed our flight locations moving between Melbourne/ Sydney and Brisbane - flights had no connections that made sense. Cut back on days and very difficult to get anybody to help sort out. DO NOT BOOK- save yourself the expense and stress. Show details

Delightful!! The service that all airlines used to offer!! – Brisbane to Santo to Vila on 737. Full service airline with meals, drinks etc provided by friendly, smiling cabin crew. A bit lacking in IFE but for such short flights that doesn't matter. Hot meal served with generous drinks .....the flight attendants are very generous with their helpings of spirits!!... Santo to Vila flight, we were served… Read more

with packets of banana crisps and bottles of water.

Vila to Santo was in a little Twin Otter, with no cabin crew or inflight service, but such a scenic flight from a low-flying plane made for a wonderful experience.

Finally a helpful airline – Our Easter flight to Vanuatu was delayed by one day because the aircraft had a cracked wind shield. This was beyond their control and the safety of the passengers came before "money making". Once on board the next available Air Vanuatu plane the service was exemplary and every passengers wants and needs were addressed in a very professional… Read more

manner. They contacted us promptly to make arrangements for a flight the following day and gave us a letter to lodge with our Travel Insurance company to suport any claim we may wish to make.

Wonderful Customer Service – I'm booked to go on a holiday to Vanuatu and although I did not book with Air Vanuatu (which I'm kicking myself now for not doing), I found the staff members that I spoke to there today so friendly and genuinely caring. I have been dealing with my agent (Expedia) for almost a month to get an issue resolved which hasn't happened yet and I'm due… Read more

to fly out in 3 days. I took a chance calling Air Vanuatu today since I'm travelling on a Qantas flight which is operated by Air Vanuatu and dealt with a lovely lady named Deidre who actually helped me to get a resolution and also to another lovely lady named Katie who provided me with other information that I could not get from my agent.

On 3 occasions prior, I rang Qantas as I was told by Expedia that the hold up was at their end and all three staff members I spoke to were rude and arrogant and just brushed me off saying "deal with your agent". That was not the case today with Air Vanuatu.

Having spoken to a call centre in India more than 18 times whilst dealing with Expedia, it was finally good to speak to someone in Australia who seems to know what customer service is and seems to care. I would not hesistate to recommend Air Vanuatu to anybody. Customer Service and Caring Nature

Don’t bother planning flights change continuously – Worse airline ever. Flights to Vanuatu changed on multiple occasions- by days. Trying to get through was a nightmare. WILL NEVER FLY WITH THEM AGAIN. Show details

Flying gamble – I chose Air Vanuatu because it offered a direct flight from Melbourne to Port Vila. I so wish I had read the airline reviews before choosing NF over Virgin! Two days out from flight, we have had 3 changes of itinerary and the only viable option is to go a day early and cop the additional hotel cost. Otherwise we would have to wait 12 weeks (and… Read more

I hear scoffing about how likely it is we will get the refund within that time period) and then it would only be a partial refund leaving us more out of pocket than we will be.

Going via Virgin would be more reliable but end up costing us more even when the partial refund is returned.

Thrives of the south pacific – Theives of the south pacific . We bought flight tickets for the family with a total value of $4227.50. First flights were cancelled and we were Told that we would not get a refund but would get a credit on further flights. We rebook further flights and that flight was cancelled as well. We then received correspondence saying that we could have a… Read more

credit or a refund. So we asked for a refund. That was almost twelve months ago. They now have blocked. All emails , they have banned me from their social media sites and refuse to answer phone calls. In that time, they have deleted all of their social media pages and relaunched them and block all realistic comments. Don't fly with air vanuatu. They are thieves, you will buy your tickets and you will never get a flight. Vanuatu is beautiful island.... just fly with somebody more reliable and honest. The only reason I gave them one star is because I can't give them zero stars

Refund for cancelled flights – Terrible company booked through a third party travel agent, flights got cancelled, I was told I would be waiting up to 12 weeks for a return. I have called Both Companies, TravelOnline, which I will never use again. I've contacted both parties several times; TravelOnline will not give me money back as they have yet to receive my refund from Air… Read more

Vanuatu. The Air Vanuatu team, who looks after the refunds, etc., wait to get back to their sales team. The whole thing is a mess; I will never fly Air Vanuatu even if offered a lifetime of free flights. With travelling, I will never book through them again, even if I could save $1000; if and when I go to Vanuatu, I will only fly Virgin - So that you know, I have now been waiting for 22Weeks for a refund and no one can tell me when I will get my money back. I've taken this to Consumer Affairs, NTCAT, if I need to and then I will go to the ACCC and get both parties investigated, hopefully leading to a hefty fine and both parties treating customers with respect.

Worst comes to worsest – Keep changing flight time. To Port Villa departure to Sydney return. No courtesy email, sms or call! We almost missed our flights! Business class looks like a cheap economy seats. Food served looks from take away shop. Not suited for holiday trip with connecting flights. Don't think it's a qantas partnership. Expect you have roaming number with you if ever. Zero entertaiment. Show details

Incompetent – NF10 from Port Villa to Syd- Melbourne! Changed flight time last minute, boarded 40 minutes late! and they made us miss our connecting flight!! The crew knew the whole time we would miss our connecting flight and still led us astray into an airport that had closed for the day!! Absolutely ridiculous Show details

Do not book! Worst airline ever – Our luggage was offloaded because the plane weight limit reached capacity. We were not told until our flight arrived at our destination (New Caledonia) with no luggage.. could not get our luggage to us for 3days.. had to cancel everything booked in New Caledonia because we had nothings and we’re waiting for our cases.. no compensation provided for the inconvenience. Show details

Terrible – Cancelled flight as we were lined up at airport for check in Contact details taken and said they will be in touch asap re new flight etc. Nothing for 1 day. Next day 1 email and text message saying working on a solution will be in contact again. Nothing. 2 nights wasted and counting no closer to a solution. Don't be fooled when booking saying it's… Read more

a Qantas flight. We booked thinking it was a Qantas flight only to have e ticket say it was a air vanuatu flight. Such a shame. Highly recommend avoiding flying air vanuatu. Have a bad track record of cancelled flights and next to nothing in customer support.

Worst Airline Ever, Terrible Customer Service – Terrible customer service. We were due to fly for a 7 day holiday on Saturday, the night before (Friday) we got an email that simple said "Your flight has been cancelled there will be a further update on Monday" There was no support or information on what we should do. On Facebook they kept saying to call the team for assistance, yet no one could… Read more

get an answer. Since then emails have gone unanswered or they rudely respond with one line and no answer to your actual question. We ended up not being able to have our holiday yet we had paid for everything. Travel insurance doesn't cover mechanical issues, the airline should. Trying to get our refund has been impossible, they said the time frame for a refund is indefinite. It's been 8 weeks so far. I've never experienced such terrible customer service and sadly on something that has left us very out of pocket!

Cancelled flight by airline; refusal to refund – We were traveling New Zealand to Africa via Fiji with 1 night stopover in Vanuatu; cyclone hit Vanuatu and Vanuatu Government declared state of emergency, therefore no flights to Vanuatu as both Air Vanuatu & Fijian Airways cancelled their flights. Fijian Airways refunded the fare with 2 weeks; Air Vanuatu refused refund and refused to reply to… Read more

emails. I have complained to Reservations and Customer Care and cannot get a reply. I have now returned to Ghana and don't know who else to complain to; I would recommend never use Air Vanuatu! I am not thje only passenger to find this airline less than efficient, look at reviews and facebook!!!

Worst customer service and communication – I booked a dream holiday for my kids and I last year and flew Air Vanuatu. All was fine until I tried to check us in for our flight the following day only to discover that our flight had been cancelled and no-one had bothered to call and let me know. After many fruitless attempts to call, ("You are 3rd in line.. 2nd..1st" and then they would hang… Read more

up) family called from Australia to find that my flight had been rebooked for 2 days later. With my son sitting the HSC in 3 days I was frantic to get home and waited in line for an hour at the Air Vanuatu Office in Port Vila to be told that there was nothing they could do however, I would be reimbursed for my accommodation and dinner. Fast forward to now, 5 months later. I have spoken with numerous consultants (when I can get through), sent over 12 emails that no-one has bothered to reply to and finally spoke with someone from reservations who said they would help me, to no avail. I am out of pocket $1000 that, had I known how much extra we would be charged, would have moved to cheaper accommodation for those extra nights. I am extremely disappointed that my first, and last trip to Vanuatu will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

The worst airline I have ever had the displeasure of flying with – Terrible service. - Cancelled or moved all of my flights between Brisbane and three different islands. - Left our luggage on another island for 5 days of our holiday - Poor communication leaving us in a hot "airport" with no access to water or food (just packets of chips which we bought and were stale due to the mouse holes in them!!!) for over… Read more

7 hours, constantly telling us it would be "10 more minutes". Be honest so people can leave and sort something else out. I got Very sick after this and at 7 months pregnant this is less than ideal!!!! - left very out of pocket due to missing luggage and flight changes which resulted in us loosing pre paid accommodation and car hire. No compensation given - returning home we have tried to claim on our travel insurance but air Vanuatu will not respond to any emails, have promised on the phone to send the info we need the same day but consistently failed to do so and now the number goes through to a recorded voice message with no ability to speak to someone

Never fly Air Vanuatu!!!!!

Who the hell is running this business? A child? – Beautiful country, Terrible airline They asked us to come 5 hours early so stole an entire day of our holliday then left us standing in line for 2 hours only to tell us our flight is full and to come and try again at 3am!! 2 young children and an elderly grandparent with us. Absolute mismanagement Show details

My worst airline experience – The single worst airline experience of my life. Cancel my flight without notifying me. Were completely uncontactable for the following 48 hours after. Did not offer a solution. Could not tell me "if " there was a rescheduled flight or "when". The next day from start of business the phone lines were put on hold. Got an sms 60minutes before flight… Read more

telling me to go to airport for flight. Not enough time! Noone to contact. No refund. Do not fly with them. Traumatic.

Dreadful Airline, avoid at all costs! – As we were leaving for the airport for our flight to Port Vila, we received a phone call advising that our flight wouldn’t be going ahead and had been rescheduled to the following morning. Despite multiple requests for confirmation and a new itinerary via email, nothing was sent. However, our Qantas app was updated with the new itinerary, as we… Read more

booked through them, so we felt confident it was correct. So we arrive at the airport the next morning, queue for 2.5 hours to check in only to be told that we are not on the flight! We are, in fact, on the evening flight in 12 hours time. Despite the assurances of the Air Vanuatu customer service team and a confirmed itinerary from Qantas, we had still been given the wrong information. But there were no apologies or accountability taken, just blank stares and “computer says no” attitudes. As such, we now have make a travel insurance claim for the 2 nights accommodation we paid for but could not enjoy because Air Vanuatu are a cowboy operation with dreadful customer service. Most people we chatted to in the queue had similar experiences and had been delayed for over a week, due to overbooking and poor communication. Avoid at all costs.

WORST AIRLINE EVER!! Unreliable, rude, inadequiate and always late and/or cancelled – Our experience with Air Vanuatu this past few days has been ridiculous! Air Vanuatu already has a bad reputation for being late and extremely unreliable, but this is unbelievable. First our flights are cancelled. Then, after receiving email confirmation of our new rescheduled flight times, we arrive only to find that our names (along with many… Read more

other passengers) are not on the list. We were given advice to fly down to Sydney (at our own expense) just to catch the next flight.

Appalling customer service...should be ashamed – I was publicly shamed on my recent flight by a 'customer service' staff member (flight crew were ok). I have sent a formal complaint to four Air Vanuatu email addresses and they are yet to respond. I've now escalated my complaint to the Anti Discrimination Board. I would never use this airline again. Their staff should be ashamed of themselves for… Read more

absolutely humiliating people. If they did it to me, it's reasonable to assume others have experienced similar.

What an experience, – On 24th October we were to fly from Sydney to Port Vila , due to the tarmac there being flooded, we continued onto the island of Espiritu Santo, where all passengers remained on board, on the tarmac , for the next 3 hours. The pilot announced that due to the circumstances, we would fly back to Brisbane, assuring us everything there was organised… Read more

for our arrival. When we landed, customs was in a tizz, as they had not been notified 200 passengers were landing. After collecting our luggage, we were eventually taken by coach, in groups of about 40, to different hotels - we felt fortunate to have a pleasant room at The Courtyard Marriott ( highly recommend) and a cafe that provided us with breakfast. Back onto our coach at 8.30am to Brisbane Airport, long queues, only to be told we were boarding a smaller Air Nauru flight - luckily we scored 2 seats and departed at 1.30pm for Port Vila. We eventually arrived at our resort by 7pm - 36 hours after we’d left our home in Melbourne ! Our return , 5 nights later, from Port Vila to Brisbane ,was postponed from 4.25 pm to 10.30pm ( to a Solomon island airways flight )meaning we missed our connecting flight to Melbourne, required us to stay overnight ( actually early morning) in a hotel, and rebook flights with Virgin to Melbourne. Never so glad to be home 17 hours late! Very disappointing.....sorry Vanuatu, you won’t be seeing us again on your airline

Never book with air Vanuatu – Flight from Sydney to Port Vila was delayed by an hour. Plane smelt bad and was very basic with twitching lights etc. The big nightmare was on our way back. Flight was meant to leave at 7am on Sunday the 9/10/22 and we arrived at the airport at 4.30am only to find a little piece of paper saying flight was cancelled and staff will be there during… Read more

opening hours (from 8am onwards) to assist. The staff arrived and informed us there was maintenance being down and giggled about us having to get back to work the next day. They informed us we would be put on a flight for 7am the next day. We were told to wait until 10am to be taken to a hotel with no further instructions. Upon arrival at the hotel we were told by hotel staff that we are allowed 3 meals for the day. Then the flight time was changed to 3.30am via email and an hour later to 2am. We were picked up by a bus at 10pm from the hotel and waited until 3.30am for the flight to actually leave as the staff were taking their time getting through all the costumers. We didn't get an apology or an explanation from anybody apart from the pilot saying on the flight that this was due to a faulty windscreen wiper. When arriving in Sydney our baggage never came to the carousel it was meant to as we had been given the wrong number so we wasted some more time here. This all meant we had to take an extra day off work at very short notice, never ever fly with them, very unreliable and unprofessional.

Such a disappointment – We traveled to Vanuatu, from Brisbane, on Air Vanuatu, for our first overseas trip in years. We were excited, then extremely disappointed. We paid top prices, for what was a very budget airline. The plane was old and very dirty. It was cramped, with very little leg room. We had been told we would receive an in flight meal (both flights at dinner… Read more

time), but only received a biscuit and a glass of tepid water. There was no alcohol (it is an international flight!) and absolutely no in flight entertainment, not even a screen. We will never fly with them again, and do not recommend anyone else does.

Worst airline I've ever experienced – In the lead up to our August 2022 trip, Air Vanuatu changed the flight times on us THREE TIMES. Three times reshuffling our plans, cancelling and rebooking accommodation, time off work etc. NIGHTMARE. Things went as scheduled until it was time to leave the island of Ambrym. We showed up at the Ambrym airport, checked in our bags etc, and were told… Read more

our flight was a little late. So we sat down and waited...only to be told that our flight was postponed - by TWO DAYS. We had booked for a Wednesday morning flight to Vila, we then had to wait on the island, shell out more money for accommodation and food, and wait for the next plane to come on Friday morning. the Australian pilot was an absolute grump when the flight finally did arrive. APPALLING. YOU WANT TOURISM IN YOUR ISLANDS YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO STEP IT UP!

Worst airline we have encountered in years – This would be the worst airline we have travelled with for years. Flights from Australia(August 2022) were terrible, no mask mandates (for Nivans) poor inflight service. Domestic flights between Santo and Port Vila delayed up to 2 hours without any information or communication. Appalling state of airports, dirty and no management. Such a shame… Read more

the tourism has shown no genuine concern to welcome back tourists in a responsible manner. 16 hours flights time on return to australia 20th August with covid infections caught at airport

Terrible customer service – We booked a holiday through My Holiday Centre who booked flights with Air Vanuatu in 2019 we paid over $4000 and to date Air Vanuatu are refusing to offer either a refund or partial refund despite numerous attempts. Business of Consumer Affairs contacted them on our behalf to appeal to their good nature and they refused to offer anything. For a… Read more

business that does not offer any other flight in Australia, does not have their borders open and offers no customer service but will happily take your Australian money by not oblige byAustralian Consuner Law. Stay away from them and use Qantas who will give you a refund or a credit that can be used in Australia

Air Vanuatu still refusing to refund my fare due to the pandemic...shame on you – Booked a family holiday for my daughters 18th birthday, which could not go ahead due to COVID-19. Booking was via Webjet. Like everyone else it took forever for a credit to be obtained. I have requested a full refund due to our financial position. Air Vanuatu are not responding to Webjet and have gone to ground. Shame on you when people need you.… Read more

You owe it to your customers to do the right thing ethically and morally. Step-up and provide the refund.