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Air Pacific’s flagship is 747-200 ZK-NZY 'Island of Viti Levu'. On lease from Air New Zealand, it flies to Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Tokyo and LA, and its utilization for the 12 months to March 31 was 3093 hours. This 747 was also the first Air Pacific aircraft to feature the airline’s revised livery when it was delivered in mid-1993. The Air Pacific titles are written in a new font, while the marlin on the tail has been replaced by the word Fiji. The latter change was made to more closely associate Air Pacific with Fiji. (Rob Finlayson)
Airline Profile — Air Pacific
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Air Pacific
In July this year Air Pacific announced its latest annual results, a doubling of profit from the previous financial year. Such an excellent result too is not so unusual at Air Pacific in recent times — the Fijian carrier has now enjoyed nine consecutive years of profitable operations. And this during one of the airline industry’s longest sustained downturns ever, plus political turmoil in Fiji and the occasional tropical cyclone. However, it has not always been like this. In the early 1980s Air Pacific’s primary equipment was a lone Boeing 737-200, used on services to Brisbane and Auckland, and to the neighbouring Pacific islands. In 1983 the carrier bravely launched what it called Project America, services to Hawaii using a leased Air New Zealand DC-10. While Project America gave Air Pacific its first taste of operating a long haul international route, the experience was far from what had been hoped for.
The thrice weekly services failed to attract sustainable load factors, and the airline haemorrhaged severely as a result. For a time during 1983 and 1984, Air Pacific was losing around a million dollars a month — a considerable amount for a carrier of its diminutive stature. Project America too came at a time when almost all of Air Pacific’s services were losing money.
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