Solomons - Solomon Airlines (IE, Honiara) has chartered a DHC-6-300 from Solomons - Solomon Airlines (IE, Honiara) to lock in additional capacity following two cyclones adversely impacting the country recently and Air Vanuatu's existing DHC-3-600s remaining out of service.

The 53-year-old H4-OTA (msn 280) ferried from Honiara to Port Vila's Bauerfield International Airport on April 5. ADS-B flight tracking data indicates the aircraft began operating for Air Vanuatu on April 10, flying short inter-island sectors. The aircraft, along with its crew, will be based in Port Vila for at least two months.

“Vanuatu is a Pacific neighbour and Air Vanuatu a valued partner airline. They have asked for our help during this crisis and we will do our utmost to assist them,” said Solomon Airlines CEO Gus Kraus in a statement. "We are seeing renewed and more comprehensive partnerships with our neighbouring Pacific Islands and other national carriers in our region, and as such in good times and in difficult times we can maximise opportunities and provide support to each other."

The decision to send the DHC-6-300 to Vanuatu leaves Solomon Airlines with four aircraft on hand - two more DHC-6-300s, one DHC-8-100, and one A320-200. H4-OTA joins two existing Air Vanuatu DHC-6-300s. However, ADS-B data indicates neither of those two aircraft are presently operational.

Meanwhile, Air Vanuatu says another inoperative aircraft, their sole B737-800 (YJ-AV8 (msn 42052), grounded at Brisbane International since March 31 and awaiting spare parts from Asia due to an "engineering issue," should be flying again by the end of the week. On April 12, Air Vanuatu released a statement maintaining that restart timeline but said their "Pacific partner airlines" would continue to cover for the B737-800 until at least April 14. Nauru Airlines (ON, Nauru) operated a Port Vila - Sydney Kingsford Smith roundtrip for Air Vanuatu on April 12 using a B737-300 (VH-XNU (msn 25609)) and is slated to fly a Port Vila - Auckland International roundtrip on April 13.