Vaccination Update and July 2021 results

Airports Vanuatu Ltd (AVL) wishes to provide an update to our stakeholders on our operations in July 2020.

AVL continues to support Vanuatu’s Vaccination Programme
AVL continues to support the Covid-19 vaccine roll out programme, particularly for frontline workers.
Jason Rakau, CEO of AVL commented, “The next phase of the vaccine roll out can continue thanks in part to Vanuatu Terminal Services handling the vaccines as they arrive from overseas. AVL commits to transparency in monitoring and recording the vaccination rate of our staff. I personally support the active role Qantas is taking in promoting vaccination and would encourage all Ni-Vanuatu to protect themselves and their loved ones. This is the one activity we can all freely undertake and embrace, to play a part in protecting our nation and enabling the eventual reopening of borders for travel”.

AVL Workforce Vaccination Programme
AVL’s staff vaccination rates are impressive, with 89% of Port Vila Airport staff having voluntarily received their first dose of vaccine and looking forward achieving full vaccination, with their second dose.

July 2021’s passenger results
AVL notes that since the domestic air travel market restarted last year, our “New Normal” market has stabilized. Domestic air travel in July 2021 was up 16% on the same month last year, although it is still 46% down on July 2019, when markets and borders were fully open.

• Domestic passenger movements for July comprised 20,700 departures and arrivals across AVL’s three airports. The graph below illustrates the twelve month-rolling domestic passenger movements, which bottomed out in March 2021 and have been trending up each month since.

• International air travel continues to operate in a limited capacity under the direction of the National Disaster Management Office. 1,450 international passenger movements were processed in July 2021, being the smallest volume since November 2020.

Rowland Kalsong, Group Head of Operations commented, “The news the domestic air travel market is trending up is welcome and illustrates the importance of the domestic air travel in keeping our nation connected and our domestic economy moving. People continue to travel for work and education, and we are thrilled to see Vanuatu Tourism Office’s domestic tourism marketing campaign rolling out, Sapotem Lokol Turisim“.