Fiji Airways has increased capacity to key Australian and New Zealand markets effective immediately.
The arrival of a new ATR 72 for subsidiary Fiji Link to be used in the South Pacific has freed up the Fiji Airways B737s to operate more sectors to Australia and New Zealand.
As a result, Fiji Airways has added two additional flights to Melbourne, now flying to the popular Australian city daily. It has also added two overnight services to Auckland, enabling two further evening flights from Nadi to Auckland, and two additional early morning departures from Auckland to Nadi.
“It’s exciting for us to be able to add additional capacity to our key markets of Australia and New Zealand for the peak season, thanks to the addition of the ATR 72 which has freed up the B737s needed to operate these services,” said Fiji Airways Managing Director and CEO Stefan Pichler.
“The increase in capacity to our tourist source markets is good news for us as Fiji’s National Airline Group and for Fiji’s tourism industry.
“This was always our intention, in line with earlier announcements in our Five Year Master Plan for increased capacity to all markets. And we note with satisfaction, that the Department of Immigration has reported rising visitor numbers from our major inbound markets.”
In addition to the extra Melbourne and Auckland services, Fiji Airways will also start direct services between Nadi and Honiara, in the Solomon Islands from July 5.
More frequencies will be added during peak periods (July, October, December, January) to Sydney and Christchurch as well.
Fiji Airways currently operates once a week (Saturdays) to Christchurch and 15 times a week to Sydney and the announcement comes as official Fiji Government figures reveal an increase in visitor arrivals from Australia in April (compared to April 2013) of 9.6%.
“Peak seasons now starting with Australia and New Zealand school holidays means very high loads so the increased capacity and additional frequency options to these key markets will be good for all tourism stakeholders,” Pichler said.