Vanuatu’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism. Photo: David Kirkland

Virgin Australia will continue flying to and from the popular holiday destination of Vanuatu for the time being after a team of the airline’s safety experts conducted a full review of the airport’s runway over the weekend.

„Following this review, we have concluded that currently our aircraft can continue to safely operate in and out of Port Vila,” a Virgin spokeswoman said, referring to the carrier’s three weekly Brisbane-Port Vila flights.

Air New Zealand on Friday said it would halt flights to and from Port Vila due to concerns over the condition of the runway and Qantas stopped its codesharing with national carrier Air Vanuatu on flights between Sydney and Brisbane and Port Vila for the same reason.

Port Vila’s airport saw extensive use during the relief effort in the wake of Cyclone Pam in 2015. Photo: Sergeant Hamish Paterson/ ADF

„We continue to monitor the condition of the runway and Virgin Australia will immediately cease all operations between Australia and Port Vila if we are not convinced that the runway is suitable for ongoing operations,” the Virgin spokeswoman said. „Safety is always our number one priority and Virgin Australia would never put its passengers, crew or aircraft at risk.”

Qantas customers booked to travel to Vanuatu can receive a full refund, change their destination, keep the value of their booking as a credit to use later or book a new ticket with Air Vanuatu.

Air Vanuatu, like Virgin, is continuing its flights for now. Air Vanuatu’s management team and pilots met with the airport operator and local regulators on Saturday to put in place a plan that would allow jet aircraft operations to continue until permanent repairs could be made to the runway.

„The safety measures imposed by Air Vanuatu require daily ‘sweeping’ of the runway plus regular inspections prior to and after take-off; new obstacle and runway surveys and 200 metres of runway to be marked for urgent repair,” Air Vanuatu said.

Fiji Airways is also continuing to fly to and from Vanuatu, although it does so with smaller turboprop aircraft rather than jets.

The World Bank signed a $US59.5 million credit agreement with the Vanuatu government last May in part for urgent rehabilitation of the Port Vila runway. However, former prime minister Joe Natuman told Radio New Zealand that his successor had pulled out of a deal.

„We had already agreed on those, [but] when this new government went in they changed the plan and they wanted to get the Chinese to do it, and that disturbed the World Bank, otherwise it would have already started,” Mr Natuman said. „So this is one of the things we need to sort out when a new government goes into office.”

Vanuatu, which has an economy that relies heavily on tourism from Australia and New Zealand, held a snap election on Friday, with the results yet to be confirmed.

The island nation was heavily damaged by Cyclone Pam last year.