Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

getting to the solomons ?

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Solomon Islands

hello there, what is the best way and most economical way to get to the solomon islands from the uk.... i have been on a few of the flight search pages and it seems to be so expensive to get there ! any help would be appreciated..... cheers

The flight search pages are probably not the best wa to look, as they probably don't include most of the airlines that fly there.
You can fly to Honiara from Port Moresby on Air New Guinea, Fiji via Vanuatu on Air Pacific/ Air Vanuatu (each of these once or at most twice a week) or from Brisbane, Australia on Pacific Blue (Virgin) twice a week, Solomon Airlines 4 times a week, and Our Airline (Air Nauru) once a week.
The flights from Brisbane have become much cheaper since Pacific Blue came into the picture, so your cheapest route might be Air Asia from London (Stanstead, I think) to Kuala Lumpur, KL to Brisbane (also Air Asia), Brisbane to Honiara.
However, Air Asia flights may fly to Gold Coast, not Brisbane, in which case it may be advisable to allow a night in Brisbane so that you don't miss your Honiara flight.

1

Ozziegiraffe has provided you good advice. Brisbane is a good departure point to the Solomon Islands and it has good connections with London with low cost airlines and with non-low-cost airlines. Nadi, in Fiji, can be an alternative. You can fly from London to Nadi with Air New Zealand changing planes in Los Angeles (the leg from Los Angeles to Nadi is codeshared and operated by Air Pacific) or with Cathay Pacific changing planes in Hong Kong (the leg from Hong Kong to Nadi is codeshared and operated by Air Pacific). Another option is to find a cheap flight from London to Los Angeles or Hong Kong and to buy a separate ticket with Air Pacific for any of those destinations to the Solomon changing planes in Nadi...
I recommend you to take a look at the airlines that serve the Solomons (listed by Ozziegiraffe on #1) and to see where they fly; not necessarily directly, from the Solomons (e.g. you can go from the Solomons to Hong Kong with Air Niugini changing planes in Port Moresby but I'm not sure if you can go with that airline from Hong Kong to the Solomons without spending a night in Port Moresby). Make a list of those places and look for the prices of the flights from the Solomons to that places and the cheapest fares from those places to London.

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I flew from London to Brisbane (via Kuala Lumpur) by Malaysian Airlines and it was ok, and not so expensive (considering the length of the flight). From Brisbane to Honiara I flew by Solomon Airlines (but it was actually operated by Strategic Airlines).

Kind regards

Wojtek

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