ON TOUR: Fiji Airways. Oneworld newest member. John Bell reports

John Bell trained as a lawyer, but as a journalist joined the inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick to Newark New York on 22 June 1984, reporting for the BBC. At Radio 4 he produced 'Going Places' and 'Breakaway'. He moved to television with 'Watchdog' and the Channel 4 travel series 'Travelog' and has produced travel programmes for CNN. Sometime Vice-Chairman of the British Guild of Travel Writers and has contributed to Skyscene (British Airways), The Universe, Television Lithuania, Australian Broadcasting (ABC) and many others.  Now specialises in video and audio production, script writing and coaching.

Where was John?  It was over 40 years ago and he can't remember.  And after all it was radio he was reporting for!

Why is an airline, based in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and with 14 aircraft, about to join a club whose members include giants of the aviation world such as Qatar Airways, American Airlines and British Airways? Is it the airline itself or, maybe, the country it flies from which has been so successful in 2024 that those aviation giants just had to let it into the club?

Fiji Airways has been a Oneworld Connect member since 2018 and, it seems, is likely to be the last Connect member as rumour has it that this class of membership will be abandoned after Fiji Airways becomes a full member of Oneworld in March 2025. About time too say many travellers who have struggled to get British Airways to register points earned on Fiji on their Avios accounts. Whether Connect had any other advantages over a normal codeshare has been difficult to fathom. But, by March, this will all be history.

History is something that Fiji Airways is not short of, but it has been a bumpy ride.

Founded in the 1940s it had links to BOAC and Qantas – the Australian flag carrier is still a 16% shareholder – and, as Air Pacific, linked Figi with Los Angeles (LAX) and Australia using leased Boeing 747s under a management contract with Qantas.
 
Then in May 2000 calamity struck when a coup in Fiji killed the islands’ tourism industry and, almost, the airline with it.

Fiji is not an ideal place to launch a national carrier, and the central Pacific islands are also the graveyard of many start-ups, but by 2013 the newly re-named and re-branded Fiji Airways was back on its feet, aiming for the long-haul market with orders for two Airbus A330s.

Long haul was the only direction the airline could take. Fiji has 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited, and a population of under a million.  Not exactly an ideal domestic arrangement. Having said that, Air Fiji’s subsidiary, Fiji Link, does attempt to serve this market and other Pacific island states with a fleet of ATRs and Twin Otters.

With such small domestic numbers the airline had to turn to long haul and that, of course, meant becoming a key player in the tourism market. When totalled up it is expected that over a million visitors will have arrived on the islands in 2024, plenty via Air Fiji and many from the traditional markets in Australia and New Zealand flying on Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Qantas or Air New Zealand. This, of course, offers competition to Fiji Airways but also feeds the carriers’ long-haul flights out of the islands to Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and North America.

North America is a key origination area.  Traditionally flights from Fiji were to LAX and this was the bedrock of North American routes for many years but more recently they have begun to serve San Francisco (SFO) Vancouver (YVR) and, in December 2024 Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) was added to the schedule.

Oneworld is the key to the international development of Fiji Airways and Fiji tourism as now code sharing with American Airlines, and other Oneworld partners via DFW so they can link to the rest of the world. One initial development has been a through fare to London which, despite the distance involved, is a key and increasing market for Fiji.

So how is this done from a small hub at Nadi Airport on the largest Fijian island of Viti Levu where the nation’s capital of Suva is 150km away?

The airport itself was a World War II American air base now developed with a new terminal and some maintenance facilities but even so the airline has to provide – in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – its own re-fuelling, maintenance, catering and, of course, training. This is now dealt with in the town of Nadi where a new aviation academy for pilots, cabin crew and engineers has been established with CAE simulators for the A350, A330 and the 737 Max.

This is all done with that fleet of 14 aircraft. The original two A330s are still in the fleet and, along with two others, now serve the Asian long-haul markets.

From 2019 the airline has operated A350-900s, four of which serve the all-important American market whilst six Boeing 737s (five of which are 737 Max 800s) for short-haul destinations.  

Cairns is just about to join the five other destinations in Australia and three in New Zealand.  Air crew shortage is a problem.

So what for the future and the Oneworld partnership? When the airline re-branded it went all out to demonstrate its Fijian links and hospitality with traditional designs on the aircraft, cabin crew dressed in Fijian fashion and, of course, the greeting of ‘Bula’ when you board the plane. Its sponsorship of Fiji rugby has done it no harm and high Australian air fares have driven new traffic to the islands with 50% of passengers transferring in Nadi to complete the crossing.

Although Fiji will never have an ‘open skies’ policy new destinations will open up more competition although the airline has backed away – for the time being – from the Chinese market.  It is having a close look at India.

Some 90% of Fijian tourism facilities, including the resorts of Denarau and the island chains of Mamanuca and Yasawa, are within easy reach of Nadi airport so the tourism offer from Air Fiji is strong and the future should be bright.  Hopefully the historic bumpy ride of the airline can now settle down.  It has no new aircraft on the order book indicating a steady look at the future.  Oneworld clearly is the answer with British Airways in focus, and Qatar Airways as a new partner.  American Airlines offers all sorts of links via LAX, and Japan.

John will report on Fiji itself in the February edition of  TNU.

www.fijiairways.com

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