Our Airline

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Our Airline

IATA ON	ICAO RON	Callsign OUR AIRLINE
Founded		14 February 1970
Fleet size		1 Boeing 737-300
Destinations		Brisbane, Honiara, Majuro, Melbourne, Nadi, and Tarawa.
Headquarters		Nauru
Key people
Website: http://www.airnauru.com.au

Our Airline (formerly known as Air Nauru) is the national airline of the Pacific island Republic of Nauru. It operates scheduled international services to other Pacific islands and Australia. Its main base is Nauru International Airport.

1 History
2 Services
3 Fleet
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

Our Airline was established in 1970 as Air Nauru and started operations on 14 February 1970 with an experimental service between Nauru and Brisbane, later added regular scheduled services. It was corporatised in 1996 as the Nauru Air Corporation (NAC), enabling it to operate independently in a commercial marketplace, free from most of its government constraints. In 1998 it came under the regulatory control of the Civil Aviation Authority of Australia and is a select foreign carrier holding an Australian Air Operator's Certificate (AOC).

Our Airline is wholly owned by the state. However, the island's regular economic troubles have caused the airline to lose large amounts of money, and on some occasions become insolvent. Its operations were suspended for brief periods in the late 1990s because of concerns raised by Australia over the airworthiness and safety record of its aircraft. Airline offices and equipment were also frequently repossessed by the Australian government for Nauru's repeated defaults on foreign loans. It's services are kept on a very loose schedule, as the aircraft is often used for the transportation of government officials. Senior cabinet members and diplomats travel frequently to and from the country to visit international summits and other meetings.

The airline has been in dispute with the Export-Import Bank of the United States since 2002, and in December 2005 the High Court of Australia upheld an earlier decision to allow the bank to seize Air Nauru's only aircraft, registered VH-RON, leaving Nauru and the island nation Kiribati without air services ^[1].

[edit] Services

Services are provided from Nauru to the following international scheduled destinations: Brisbane, Honiara, Majuro, Melbourne, Nadi, and Tarawa.

Air Nauru also provided services on behalf of Norfolk Jet Express from Norfolk Island to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. However, Norfolk Jet Express went into voluntary liquidation on 4 June 2005. After urgent discussions, Norfolk Island Administration secretary, Peter Maywald, announced on 7 June that Qantas and Air Nauru would jointly provide replacement services for at least 12 months. For the first week after liquidation, Alliance Airlines aircraft were used for services, following which it was planned that Qantas would operate the flights from 11 June using Air Nauru Boeing 737 aircraft chartered by the Norfolk Island Government. ^[2]

Our Airline is currently only able to provide a limited network service.

Our Airline flights are currently being operated by Alliance Airlines of Australia, using a Fokker F100 jet, and by Air Pacific of Fiji using a Boeing 737-700 jet.

There is currently a weekend service from Brisbane through Honiara to Nauru and Tarawa Atoll and return, being provided by Alliance Airlines, and a Thursday service from Nadi to Tarawa and return that is being provided by Air Pacific.

On September 4, 2006, the company's name has been rebranded to "Our Airline".^[3]

[edit] Fleet

As of August 2006 the Our Airline fleet includes ^[4] :

1 Boeing 737-300

Air Nauru had only one aircraft, a Boeing 737-400 (as at July 2005) which went into service in 1998. The aircraft was seized by creditors in Melbourne Airport, Australia, on December 18, 2005.

In March 2006, the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) assisted Air Nauru with the purchase of a brand new Boeing 737, which was expected to be in operation by mid-2006, after several logistical delays. This purchase was put on hold in May 2006 due to OzJet and Air Pacific having started on the routes formerly operated by Air Nauru. ^[5] In September 2006 the new Boeing plane came into service.