Vanuatuan fruit pickers are finally starting to head home after Air Vanuatu went into voluntary liquidation.

Seasonal Solutions Cooperative (SSCO) has been working hard to find alternative flights on Fiji Airways and Solomon Airlines for many of those who had been left stranded.

SSCO board director James Dicey said it had been a difficult process to get everyone home as there was only so much space on flights.

“There are some pretty sad guys out there who are eager to get home. They’ve missed births, there have been divorces, all sorts of things but they just carry on. That’s normal life.”

Nationally there were 213 Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers waiting on flights, with 85 of these in the south. 

Air Vanuatu cancelled all of its international flights for a week last Saturday as the company went into liquidation. The Vanuatuan government was assisting the airline carrier on its finances.

This was not the first time there had been issues with flights, with Air New Zealand temporarily suspending their regular schedule into Vanuatu in 2016, citing runway issues.

Air Vanuatu has also cancelled flights in the past due to mechanical problems.

“The logistics of getting the boys home is difficult. It has always been a difficult process.”

James said on his vineyard he had left it up to the crew to sort amongst themselves who should go home first, prioritising those with wives and children.

The first group of 11 will leave on Monday, followed by another group of 29 a few days later. A few more were still sorting out visas.

SSCO and other RSE contractors were working with orchard workers to continue providing pastoral care, to ensure they had enough food and money to stay in New Zealand while they waited for flights home.