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Nauru Air Corporation, trading as Nauru Airlines (formerly trading as Our Airline and Air Nauru), is the flag carrier of the Republic of Nauru. It operates scheduled international services to other Pacific islands and Australia. Its main base is Nauru International Airport. Its head office is on the premises of Nauru International Airport, Yaren District and its operations office is in Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland. "Contact Us" . Our Airline. Retrieved on 16 January 2011. "Head Office Nauru International Airport PO Box 40 Republic of Nauru" "Operations Office Level 3, 99 Creek Street Brisbane QLD 4000" In August 2014, the airline changed its name from Our Airline to Nauru Airlines.
By 1983, the fleet included seven aircraft: two Boeing 727-100s and five Boeing 737-200s; Australian Aviation magazine 1984 Major Airline Directory. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISSN 0813-0876. since the entire population of Nauru at this time was about 8,000,Population number derived from figures mentioned on Page 14 of this report retrieved 2007-09-22. the airline was in the position of having seating capacity equal to 10% of the Nauruan population. The airline had a bad reputation for cancelling flights at the whim of its government owners, including using the Boeing 727s for low-level searches for Nauruan fisherman lost at sea while relatives on board were served alcohol by the flight attendants."Micronesian Carriers to Stage a Comeback?" Australian Aviation magazine, No. 127, April 1997, p60-61. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISSN 0813-0876. From this high point (at least in terms of fleet numbers) the airline gradually contracted in size, leasing some aircraft and selling others.
In 1988, the fleet consisted of three Boeing 737-200s with the one remaining 727-100 leased out to Trans Australia Airlines. At this time, the airline was badly affected by an industrial dispute with its pilots and was operating without a set timetable, a situation that lasted for several months. Australian Aviation magazine 1989 Major Airline Directory. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISSN 0813-0876. The majority of the airline's pilots struck in May 1988 after the secretary of the Nauru Airline Pilots' Association, Captain Thomas Reid, was dismissed by the government. The strike also affected the island of Kiribati, which provided the fastest and cheapest air link to Australia.
To replace the striking pilots, the airline tried to recruit pilots from Australia and New Zealand, however the pilots' associations in these two countries refused. An agreement with the Indian government was reached to send 20 Indian Airlines pilots to fly for Air Nauru on a rotation basis.
In the early 1990s, an Air Nauru 737 was chartered to operate the Auckland-Niue route of Niue Airlines, the latter company's only service.
In 1993, two of the 737-200s were replaced by a pair of Boeing 737-400s, leaving the Boeing 737-200C to soldier on for a little while longer while the runway in Tarawa was being rebuilt. Australian Aviation magazine 1994 Major Airline Directory. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISSN 0813-0876. The 737-400s were built to Qantas standards, and were maintained by the Australian flag carrier. One of 737-400s was sold to Qantas in June 1995 as part of a move to rationalize services. The airline, by now operating only a single 737-400, was corporatised in July 1996 as the Nauru Air Corporation (NAC).
Mismanagement of the island's wealth and the resulting economic troubles caused the airline to lose large amounts of money, and on some occasions become insolvent. Its operations were also suspended for brief periods in the 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. The airline became in dispute with the Export-Import Bank of the United States in 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, leaving Nauru and the island nation of Kiribati without air services. The aircraft was seized by creditors at Melbourne Airport on 18 December 2005. Suit costs Nauru its air link retrieved 2007-09-22. Following the acquisition of a replacement aircraft (a Boeing 737-300) in mid 2006, the airline was rebranded as Our Airline and relaunched on 14 October 2006. Our Airline was renamed Nauru Airlines on 1 August 2014.
Nauru Airlines is now wholly owned by the state and had 65 employees in July 2012.
| Brisbane Airport |
| Pohnpei International Airport |
| Nadi International Airport |
| Nausori International Airport |
| Cassidy International Airport |
| Bonriki International Airport |
| Marshall Islands International Airport |
| Nauru International Airport Base |
| Roman Tmetuchl International Airport |
| Clark International Airport |
The average load factor throughout the network was only around 20%, with many flights carrying few or no passengers. The Nauru government subsidized the airline with profits from phosphate mining. Due to the phosphate reserves depleting in the early 1990s, along with the mismanagement of the island's mineral reserves, the airline began to cease services to unprofitable destinations.
Although it had been reported in early 2007 that Our Airline would begin services between Nauru and Fiji in the very near future, the airline instead provided once weekly Tarawa to Nadi service on behalf of Air Kiribati beginning in November 2009. However, the service between Nauru and Fiji which began in 2010 ceased in December 2011 due to a dispute between the governments of Kiribati and Fiji. This was replaced with a bi-weekly direct flight between Nauru and Nadi, in Fiji.
As of December 2019, Nauru Airlines served four destinations from its base in Nauru: Brisbane, Majuro, Nadi, and Tarawa. However, three of these destinations have since been discontinued and the airline currently only has limited service to Brisbane. Thus, the Nauru Airlines service between Brisbane and Nauru is now the only scheduled service of any airline to Nauru.
In May 2023, Nauru Airlines applied to the US Department of Transport for permission to fly scheduled cargo and passenger flights to Guam using Boeing 737 equipment. In 2017, the airline successfully obtained a five-year foreign carrier's permit allowing such flights but due to COVID-19 and other reasons, never used the permit. The filing also said the airline was in the final stages of securing a Boeing 737-800SF which will be registered as VH-8TG (msn 33003).
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| + Nauru Airlines fleet ! rowspan="2" | Aircraft ! rowspan="2" | In service ! rowspan="2" | Orders ! colspan="3" | Passengers ! rowspan="2" | Notes | |
| Boeing 737-300 | 2 | — | 12 | 108 | 120 | |
| Boeing 737-300SF | 2 | — | Freighter | |||
| Boeing 737-700 | 1 | — | 8 | 108 | 116 | |
| Boeing 737-800 | 1 | — | 10 | 168 | 178 | |
| Boeing 737-800SF | 1 | — | Freighter | |||
Previously operated jet aircraft:http://www.airliners.net , Air Nauru aircraft (advanced search function)
In March 2006, the government of the Republic of China, reportedly as a reward for Nauru's diplomatic recognition of the ROC instead of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan Switch Keeps Air Nauru Flying retrieved 2007-09-22. assisted Air Nauru with the purchase of a second-hand 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 Fiji Airways (now Fiji Airways) having started on the routes formerly operated by Air Nauru. In October 2006, the new Boeing plane came into service. The plane was registered as VH-INU and named as 'Naoero'. In 2008, the Airline bought their second Boeing 737-300 adorned with a full Norfolk Air livery, remaining till now despite Norfolk Air's current state of closure. The plane was registered as VH-NLK. Later in March 2013, the airline purchased a Boeing 737-300 from GECAS. The plane was painted in the 'Our Airline' livery in Melbourne, making its first visit to Brisbane Airport on 3 September 2013. Our Airline B733 VH-PNI Retrieved 15 September 2013
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