Getting to Ile de Pins

Hello everyone,

i need your help on something, as i have come up to a dead-end:

I am going on a honeymoon trip to Ile de Pins on Christmas. I already booked my flights from Greece to Sydney, from Sydney to Noumea, and...it's impossible to book a flight from Noumea to Ile de Pins. The Air New Caledonia, the only one serving domestic flights i believe, doesn't have an online system to pay for a ticket. They have instead a booking form, but however, after October 31st, there are no flights available. I guess there will be, but it's not possible to complete a booking form for those dates (25/12-2/1). I emailed them several times, and to more than one email accounts that they have, but no reply so far.
The other choice would be the ferry, but my wife can get sea-sick even if you leave her on a bath tube, so that would be my ultimate choice (i can book online tickets there by credit card, alrady checked it).

So the question to the experienced travellets of that neighborhood, is what do i do? I just wait? And check their website everyday until those dates are open? Please note i am coming from the other side of the planet, so i dont want to leave anything to chance. Thank you all.

Edited by: Shadowless

Back in 2006 we were able to book flights in April for travel in September. We filed out the form with our request and heard back in about a week. We had to fax our credit card information to the number provided and we picked up our tickets at Magenta Airport on the day of the flight. We booked a package with them that included accommodations and transfers. This is the e-mail of the person we corresponded with, maybe he still works there - Francoise-Follenfant@air-calendonie.nc or ffollenfant@air-caledonie.nc . Hopefully you can get it all sorted out as it is definitely worth the effort.

We travelled to Lifou in March this year & booked by email with Air Caledonie. We paid by credit card & collected our tickets at Magenta Airport on the day of our flight.
The person we dealt with was Angelia Carci her email address is angelia-carci@air-caledonie.nc.
The general email address for sales at Air Caledonie is Vente@air-caledonie.nc
Fax Number is: 687 28 03 89.
Good Luck, it's a beautiful part of the world & well worth the effort to get there.

I would strongly suggest that you telephone the airline. The air services are reasonably frequent but the planes are small and you want to be sure.The phone number is 28 78 88 and the country code is 687.

Thus call +687 28 78 88.

Non-response to emails/faxes is common in the Pacific - don't know why, it just is. That is why I usually phone if urgent.

Iles des Pins is stunning, enjoy !

By the way, I assume that you realise that flights Noumea-IDP is from the domestic airport Magenta and NOT from the international airport where your flight ex-Sydney arrives from.

Thank you all for your information!

Yes i am aware i have to change airports in Noumea. There's also a limit of 12 kgs per person, unless you come from an international destination? In that case what do i do? i just show them my boarding pass of my Sydney-Noumea flight of the previous day?

I will email in the emails you provided me, otherwise i will call them....

"There's also a limit of 12 kgs per person, unless you come from an international destination? In that case what do i do?"

Its only a small plane, so take less or leave stuff in Noumea, unless you can pay for excess baggage - ask them.

Due to flight schedules we had to spend our first night in Noumea. The hotel we stayed at let us leave a couple of bags in their luggage room until we returned - we did not stay with them when we got back from Ile de Pins so felt they were very accommodating. You could also check out Auberge de Jeunesse(the youth hostel) - they have large lockers (100CFP per day in 2006) where you could leave bags. You could also check with Magenta Airport about left luggage, although I don't recall getting any feedback from them.

Hi Shadowless,

Lovely choice for your honeymoon.
We are also going back to New Caledonia (for our honeymoon this time) and I know its a bit frustrating not being able to book the Air Caledonie flights yet. I emailed Francoise Follenfant at Air Caledonie and she replied saying flights departing after 31st October are not yet bookable, but she would let us know when they were -perhaps you could request the same information. There are usually 3 or 4 flights to IDP per day - you can check the flight schedule on their website. I have booked flights with Air Caledonie through their online system before (paying by credit card via Fax not email) and there was no problem. I have also had to cancel flights with them and received a full refund with polite efficiency.
I would therefore not worry too much - but keep checking until flights become bookable.
One thing though - Air Caledonie has been known to hold strikes - its not a good idea to try to connect through to Sydney the same day, but allow a couple days in Noumea each side if possible. I'm not trying to concern you but just to let you know.

Best regards and Bon Lune de Miel!

Hi Again Shadowless,

Good News if you haven't checked yet...
It is now possible to book flights on Air Caledonia for the dates you wanted.