The three owners of Air Taxi, Julia Johnstone (center), with her husband (left), and Simon Turner (right), standing in front of the new GA8 Air Van aircraft.
The three owners of Air Taxi, Julia Johnstone (center), with her husband (left), and Simon Turner (right), standing in front of the new GA8 Air Van aircraft.
Air Taxi Vanuatu welcomed their latest and most modern aircraft — a GA8 Air Van with a seating capacity for seven (7) passengers — over the weekend.
The Mahindra Airvan 8 is a single-engine utility aircraft manufactured by Gipps Aero of Victoria, Australia.
It can seat up to eight people, including the pilot, and has a wingspan of12 m, cruise speed of 222 km/h, top speed of 241 km/h, range of 1,352 km, weight of 1,014 kg, engine type of Lycoming O-540 and its unit cost is 699,000–699,000 USD (2013).
Following on from last months arrival of a fourth islander, this will bring Air Taxi’s fleet of aircraft to eight as they aim to improve and increase the availability of services to the general travelling public.
The company was launched in 2009, in this year marks 13 years of operating.
Air Taxi stated that there has been much discussion on social media about the increasing disruption to local scheduled flight services and they are here to help.
Air Taxi Administrator and Customer Relations Manager, Ms Melina Samuel, has expressed her pride of the company as she has been working with the Air Taxi for almost ten years.
“I started working here when there were just two planes, two five seater planes which is what we started with since the business started,” she said.
“Today, we have come to realise that the company is growing, as we welcome this new aircraft, now we have eight planes.”
Ms Samuel claimed that Air Taxi is rated as the best service private charter company in Vanuatu and it is classified as financially and safety comes first company.
According to the Air Taxi Administrator, by Easter 2023 they aim to have eight aircraft available for charters, with at least one based in Santo.
Air Taxi are also advertising for another Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) to join the team increasing the skills within the engineering department and ensuring that company aircraft are maintain to the high standards according to Civil Aviation Authority of Vanuatu and NZ Civil Aviation rules and regulations.
Every aircraft that is operating under Air Taxi can go to any Island in Vanuatu that has an airstrip and is approved by the Civil Aviation of Vanuatu (CAAV).
Ms Samuel said a major challenge Air Taxi is facing is lack of pilots in Vanuatu.
“We have to take pilots from overseas to come and work, we also have Ni-Van pilots working here, but issues of pilots is something to work on,” she said.
The new aircraft will undergo a process from the CAAV to be registered, before it can provide services to the travelling public.
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