Air Vanuatu "rescue"

On 21 June 2010 Radio New Zealand International reported on the "rescue" of Air Vanuatu involving an around US$30m loan to the company.

A 19 June 2010 article and a 25 June 2010 article in the Vanuatu Daily Post provide further background.

There is still a web site seeking proposals for the airline's restructuring.

There can be no doubt that operating a small international airline with a limited network of long, thin routes is very challenging to put it mildly. One might contemplate the governance implications of replacing politicians with civil servants as board directors and where the incentives lie. The company now has only four directors whereas at one point it had 28 directors (see paragraph 68 of this 2005 Pacific Islands Forum paper on Public Enterprises).