CEO SAYS THANK YOU-A YEAR OF PROGRESS

I am pleased to report a year of solid progress at Solomon Airlines as our team worked hard and showed great commitment to our vision. In 2019, whilst it has been a tough year for business, we successfully achieved several major goals and as of November we have flown more international passengers and cargo than in 2018.

Safety comes first in all that we do and whilst we remain fully compliant with all international standards, we are more focused than ever on improving our safety processes and quality assurance to make the airline safer and more efficient. We have analysed much of what we do and as a result, we improved many of our systems and processes.

In March we launched our Brisbane to Munda direct flights thereby opening a new gateway to the Solomon Islands. This would not have been possible without the collaboration of many people including our staff. To this end, we thank the Government of the Solomon Islands, Moses Virivolomo Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Communication and Aviation and his team.
We especially acknowledge The Honourable Don Higgins, New Zealand High Commissioner, and the New Zealand Government for their roles in getting Munda Airport open.

In July, we partnered with Tourism Solomons to launch the first-ever Solomon Islands Australian TV and digital advertising campaign, promoting the world’s newest ‘must visit’ destination. We have grown our marketing and sales team to support the advertising campaign.

In October behind the scenes, we completed a complex and critical IT project which now gives Solomon Airlines its first independent Reservations System complete with many new features like our competitors have. This reservations system has been extended to several Island ports through installing solar-powered internet. We have progressed upgrading our fleet, starting with the refurbishment of the Twin Otters. Our Domestic Service operates to 22 domestic destinations using four Twin Otters and our single Dash 8 aircraft.

In September we purchased our Airbus A320 aircraft from the leasing company and have plans in place to replace it in 2020. Our codeshare flights with Fiji Airways, Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu and Qantas Airways remain strong. Passenger numbers to Tarawa are slowly increasing. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that while we made good progress, we are not perfect. At times during the year we let people down due to many factors outside of our control such as bad weather, poorly maintained runways, and a shortage of aircraft when our aircraft took longer than anticipated to refurbish or repair. However, we are striving to improve. We thank you for your patience during those trying times.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people and organisations walking beside us as we continue to build a better national carrier for the benefit of Solomon Islands people. On behalf of the Solomon Airlines team, we wish our valued customers, partners and colleagues, a safe and Happy Christmas.

Brett Gebers
Chief Executive Officer
Solomon Airlines