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Australia and Fiji expand air services agreement

written by australianaviation.com.au | May 8, 2017

Fiji Airways's newest addition to its fleet, a Boeing 737-800 arrives at Nadi Airport. (Fiji Airways)
A file image of a Fiji Airways Boeing 737-800 at Nadi Airport. (Fiji Airways)

Australian and Fiji flag carriers will be able to add more seats between the two countries thanks to an expanded air services agreement.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said Australia and Fiji have agreed to increase passenger capacity by 10 per cent and double the available freight allowance, noting the increases had been “long sought after” by airlines and airports.

“The additional passenger capacity will provide more opportunities for airlines to strengthen business and tourism links between our two countries,” Chester said in a statement on Monday.

“Doubling airline freight capacity on the route will also allow carriers to capitalise on the significant trade and investment relationship between Australia and Fiji, valued at over $4.2 billion in 2015-16.”

Prior to the announced expansion, Fiji, Hong Kong and Qatar were the only three markets where airlines from those countries had utilised all available capacity for flights to Australia’s four major gateways Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

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Moreover, Australian carriers had also utilised the 5,000 available seats a week to Fiji, meaning they are unable to grow traffic on the route.

Currently, Qantas’s low-cost unit Jetstar serves Nadi from Sydney, having dropped its Gold Coast-Nadi flights in March 2017. Meanwhile, Virgin Australia offers nonstop services to Nadi from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

On the Fiji side, the country’s flag carrier Fiji Airways serves Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from Nadi with a combination of Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 equipment. The airline also operates between Sydney and Suva and plans to start Nadi-Adelaide flights from June.

While Fiji Airways is majority government owned, Qantas holds 46 per cent of the airline and codeshares on its services between the two countries.

“This is a great outcome for both countries and we will continue to work with the Fiji Government to ensure the air services arrangements continue to meet the needs of all stakeholders,” Chester said.

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Comments (11)

  • John

    says:

    now maybe Fiji Air might do daily, daytime flights from BNE(daily flights now, but 2 are red-eyes) & daytime MEL/NAN flights. All these are red-eyes at present.

  • Tom

    says:

    Yes I wanted to fly BNE/SFO on FJ on a Thu, but no BNE/NAN daytime flight, so either had to go via bloody awful SYD or FAA(fly another airline).

    There are new 738’s parked at BNE everyday. Surely FJ could lease/charter call it whatever you want & then they’d have daily flights BNE/NAN that connect with all flights to LAX & SFO

    VA has daily flights BNE/NAN & sometimes in busy time they put on extra flights.

  • Nick

    says:

    Why would the change in bilateral mean FJ will change the schedule of their BNE flights?

    Also VA don’t put on extra flights (they don’t have the ability to, per the existing agreement). Instead they upgauge to an A330 on the weekends.

  • Oskar James Clare

    says:

    More BNE flights please!

  • David

    says:

    Room for Qantas to expand to NAN here, from BNE, MEL and SYD at the very least.

  • Qantas to fly red kangaroo to Fiji/Sydney route to occupy increased services

  • Bryan

    says:

    We need to keep up in Vanuatu

  • Al

    says:

    “Moreover, Australian carriers had also utilised the 5,000 available seats a week to Fiji, meaning the only way to grow capacity was through upgauging to larger aircraft.”

    If all seats have been utilised, how does uguaging to larger aircraft fix the issue? Surely you just end up with a. bigger aircraft with empty seats.

    • australianaviation.com.au

      says:

      Thank you for your message Al. The story has been changed.

  • franz chong

    says:

    The QF 747’S who doesn’t remember those did the services to the USA at one time.It went Melbourne or Sydney to Nadi then Honolulu and LA.I know it would be a waste of space to use a Jumbo on such a flight now just for the Fiji flights but they should give it a fair chance using the A330’s at least.

  • ian

    says:

    Nick

    FJ could put on daily daytime flights now. Whether they get rid of red-eyes is up to them, but they can’t be very popular, unless you want to go to other islands without need to overnight at NAN>

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