Booking Air Vanuatu flights

I'm travelling in Vanuatu in mid-January for two weeks and would like to get out of Port Villa within a day or two after arriving. I'm planning to visit Ambrym and Tanna but would like to keep some flexibility in my plans. Is it necessary/recommended to book flights in advance to these islands, or could I easily wait until I arrive in the country?

I would suggest you book in advance and if necessary, change the flight according to your needs. Domestic flights by Air Vanuatu are very flexible to re-schedule, including by phone (at no extra charges). You can ask for changes as many times as needed, but everything will depend if there are places available in the plane or not.

For example, we did not book our flight to Santo, and got a place in the plane in the morning, to fly afternoon. But in the way back, the bigger plane went into maintenance and they put a 7 seater plane to cover the big one. We were luck we did book the return flight at the same time we’ve got the tickets, other ways, we supposed to be waiting 4 days for the next available plane.

In other words, if you’ve got plenty of time to spend in Vanuatu, don’t worry, and usually there is no problem to transfers fights or to book just before. But in the event …lets say… the plane for Santo needs repair…they may redirect the plane from Tanna to attend Santo, and replace the Tanna route with smaller planes. Also, the weather with exception of Tanna, Efate and Santo (bitumen airports) can make the grass landfields of some Islands impossible to land or take off after heavy rains.

I would book before, and make changes in the schedule as you go.

Hope it helps.

Edited by: celiaroger

I would also advise pre booking your flights, especially the Tanna ones as they are very popular.

Thanks!

I booked my flights for 2 weeks time between port villa and tanna a couple of weeks ago, when I was booking them I chose for the return leg the afternoon flight on the small island hopper plane. The woman on the phone kept trying to convince me I would be more comfortable on the morning flight in the larger plane, I insisted that I wanted the afternoon flight and she agreed. Then I recieved my ticket and she put me on the morning flight anyway. I am just wondering if this would have anything to do with the plane crash last month in Santo.

All,

I recognise the original poster's timeline has passed, but replying for the sake of future readers.

I recommend purchasing tickets prior to arriving in Vanuatu, particularly if you have a short time in the country. We had two weeks in the country and wanted to fly Efate >> Tanna >> Efate on particular dates so paid for the tickets before we went. When we arrived, we found that a number of people in various resorts around the island had planned to do one of the overnight trips to Tanna (fly over, visit volcano, sleep on Tanna, fly back next day) but they were unable to get a flight back so had to cancel their planned volcano visit.

Personally, I think it was a bit silly for some people with one week in the country to not organise that before they went. On the other hand, it is rainy season so there's incentive to not book until you know the weather is good.

I'm still recommending overall that you buy tickets before you go though - the volcano is very impressive and if you miss it because you can't get an internal flight after you've spent time getting to Vanuatu, you'll kick yourself.