Solomon Airlines
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| Founded | 1962 | ||||||
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| Hubs | Honiara International Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | 5 | ||||||
| Destinations | 27 | ||||||
| Company slogan | Discover somewhere completely different | ||||||
| Headquarters | Honiara, Solomon Islands | ||||||
| Key people | Gerbers Brett William(CEO) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.flysolomons.com/ | ||||||
Solomon Airlines is the national airline of the Solomon Islands, based in Honiara.
Solomon Airlines was established in 1962 as a charter airline by Laurie Crowley. Crowley had a charter operation in Papua New Guinea with occasional charter flights to the Solomons using a single Piper Aztec. As no commercial aircraft were based in the Solomon Islands, Crowley decided to start an airline and called it Megapode Airlines.
Papua New Guinea-based Macair purchased Megapode in 1968, and changed the airline's name to Solomon Islands Airways, with the acronym of SOLAIR, and changed the operation from a charter airline to a regular schedule. Under Macair, SOLAIR served the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, with two De Havilland Doves and two Beechcraft Barons.
In 1975, Macair (including its SOLAIR subsidiary) were bought by Talair, and in 1976, the airline received two Beechcraft Queen Air 80 airplanes. At the time, Solomon Islands Government bought 49 percent of the airline's shares and with rights to purchase the remaining 51 percent by the next five years.
For the next five years, growth was slow but steady. A brand new Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner was bought, and services were established to Vanuatu.
In 1984 the Government decided to purchase all of the airline's remaining shares, and two De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters and one Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante were leased from Talair. Soon after full Government take-over, the three leased planes were returned. In 1987, the sale of the airline and its assets Pacific Car Rental (a subsidiary of Avis) and tour company Hunts of the Pacific, were completed.
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