14 Jun 2003

Vanuatu airline may sell one of its planes to ease cash flow problems

8:28 am on 14 June 2003

Vanuatu's domestic airline, VanAir, is considering selling one of its aircraft in order to improve cash flow problems caused by large debts to Air Vanuatu and the National Provident Fund.

The Vanuatu Daily Post reports that VanAir has debt repayments to Air Vanuatu of more than 81-thousand US dollars a month and also has to repay a million dollar loan from the NPF made last year.

Figures released by the Director of Finance, Robert Menzies, show that overall the financial state of the airline has improved although it is still losing 40-thousand dollars a month.

VanAir has five aircraft and is looking at selling one Twin Otter to reduce insurance costs,

They are also considering selling another aircraft and leasing it back to cut costs.

And the airline is negotiating with the NPF, Air Vanuatu and BP Oil to lower debt repayments and overheads.