Nauru Airlines begins new chapter with new brand & rapid growth despite world’s smallest home market

Nauru Airlines is pursuing the fastest growth in the company's 18-year history, adding three aircraft during 2014. The government-owned flag carrier also recently completed a rebranding, taking back the Nauru name following an eight year hiatus with the more generic name Our Airline.

The rebranding and growth come as part of an increased focus on its home market. Nauru, the second least populated nation in the world after the Vatican, has a minuscule home market and no tourism.

But Nauru is receiving increased traffic as the island is used by Australia to process asylum seekers offshore. Nauru Airlines also continues to run a niche wet lease and charter business, enabling the carrier to be profitable despite its tiny size and isolated location. In the process it has been able to enhance sub-regional air service links on the long, thin inter-island routes in the south and central Pacific.

This report also covers the role of the Cook Islands' Air Rarotonga.