Cash strapped Air Calédonie sells ATR72 to replenish coffers

By Andrew Curran.

Air Calédonie has sold one of its four ATR72-600s, with the airline’s CEO saying the sale was a cash saving measure.

The aircraft, F-OZNO (msn 1472), left New Caledonia on December 18, 2025, on a 15-stop marathon ferry flight to Idaho’s Coeur d'Alene (COE) Airport.

F-OZNO flew from its Nouméa Magenta (GEA) base to the United States via Nouméa La Tontouta (NOU), Cairns (CNS), Darwin (DRW), Lombok (LOP), Singapore (XSP), Chennai (MAA), Muscat (MCT), Cairo (CAI), Marseille (MRS), Bastia (BIA), Cork (ORK), Reykjavik (KEF), Iqaluit (YFB), Churchill (YYQ), and Spokane (GEG), before landing at Coeur d'Alene on December 27.

The eight-year-old ATR, currently configured to seat 70 passengers, will be converted to a freighter and operate as a FedEx Feeder aircraft. It will go into the US aircraft register as N832FE.

“This sale is an additional effort made by the company to replenish our coffers,” Air Calédonie CEO Daniel Houmbouy told the Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes outlet. “It's a cash-saving measure. Given our traffic and flight schedule, which have been significantly reduced, we didn't necessarily need four aircraft."

Air Calédonie's response to a collapse in business

New Caledonia’s state-owned domestic airline has seen its business collapse as tourists continue to stay away after long-running civil unrest in 2024. The airline carried less than 200,000 passengers in 2025, its lowest load since the 1990s. The rioting started just as Air Calédonie was starting to recover from the impact of Covid-19.

“We were really counting on a recovery and rebound in traffic, with a target of 280,000 passengers, but we realised quite quickly that the numbers weren't there,” said Houmbouy.

“It's been over 30 years since we've seen such low traffic,” he added. “We've fallen sharply and rapidly. Today, for the activity in New Caledonia, we mobilise the equivalent of 1.5 aircraft, whereas we owned four.”

Air Calédonie operates scheduled flights from Nouméa Magenta to Ouvéa Island (UVE), Lifou Island (LIF), Mare (MEE), and Ile des Pins (ILP), as well as between Nouméa La Tontouta and Port Vila (VLI) – its sole international service.

Air Calédonie had partially offset the financial impact of a disastrous 2024 and 2025 by leasing F-OZNO to Air Tahiti and implementing a company-wide restructuring plan. But the airline still expects to post of loss of approximately XPF1.2 billion (USD11.8 million) for calendar 2025, compared to XPF1.9 billion (USD18.6 million) for calendar 2024.

Air Calédonie needs further funding

In 2024, the New Caledonia Government lent Air Calédonie XPF1 billion (USD9.8 million) to keep it in the air. They handed over a further XPF500 million (USD4.9 million) last year and, according to Houmbouy, this year’s assistance remains under discussion. The CEO says the payments are loans that are subject to normal commercial interest rates. He also adds that another repeat of a black swan event such as Covid-19 or the 2024 riots will likely spell the end of the airline.

“Air Calédonie will not survive,” said Houmbouy. “Without public support, the company, with its current level of traffic, cannot remain afloat.”

Air Calédonie currently plans to keep its three remaining ATR72-600s, and has the flight and ground crews in place to continue operating them.

“We are counting on a recovery in traffic starting in 2026, but we remain very cautious,” said the CEO. “We estimate that we will reach nearly 220,000 passengers next year, which is a very realistic target, although still below the traffic achieved in 2024. We also hope to return to normal traffic levels in three years at best.”

Houmbouy did not say how much FedEx paid for F-OZNO.

 

Photo: AI-Generated.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com