Fiji Airways will announce new routes to Australia possibly as soon as next month – with “one to two” more ports on the cards – and look to up capacity on current Aussie services, says one of the carrier’s senior executives.
In a one-on-one interview with Karryon at the Fiji Tourism Exchange (FTE), Fiji Airways Executive Manager of Global Sales, Marketing and Digital, Akuila Batiweti, said the carrier hopes to unveil the new destinations in June or July, which would bring the total number of its Australian ports to six or seven.
This would make Fiji Airways the third largest international airline operating in Australia, by number of destinations.
Given the airline is already flying to five destinations down under (including the future Canberra-Nadi route), it’s difficult to predict where FJ would fly to next. The Gold Coast would be unlikely as the carrier already flies to nearby Brisbane; Cairns could be too geographically similar to Fiji (and as a market could be too small); and Newcastle is possibly too close to Sydney (though NTL is aiming to bring back international flights). That leaves Darwin or more likely Perth as the leading contenders for the service.
Current capacity climbing
Batiweti said Fiji Airways was also already considering adding a third weekly service “at least” to its Canberra-Nadi route months before it launches in late July.
With demand for the upcoming service already surging, he said Canberra would be a great destination for the carrier given Territorians’ high average disposable income, that there are no beaches in the capital (and that it can get bitterly cold), and the fact that through Nadi, Fiji Airways will be able to connect residents of the ACT (and beyond) to other parts of the world.
Combine that with affordable fares, which Batiweti claims are cheaper than CBR-SYD flights. and it sounds like the airline is on to a winner. Fiji Airways is also proud to become the first (and thus far only) international carrier to return to Canberra post-pandemic.
Meanwhile, “Melbourne is on the list of possible new destinations for the [Airbus] 350 that comes in”.
“So that’s going to add a lot more capacity to Melbourne. We know that there’s growth in Melbourne as a city … and we know that in a few years’ time, it’ll be bigger than Sydney on the population scale.”
Heading north
The move to grow its Aussie network is part of Fiji Airways’ ongoing expansion plans, the main aim of which is to boost North American capacity.
Batiweti said the airline had remarkably upped capacity to the US by 50 per cent over its pre-pandemic level. And with the arrival of its two A350 aircraft (and their longer range), he said the carrier was also looking at new ports in the US, possibly beyond the West Coast.
With the upgrade of its Aussie services, he said US and Canada-bound Australians could look forward to more options when flying to North America.
This would be especially true for ex-Canberra and Adelaide passengers, he remarked, whose current only option to fly to North America is through Australia’s east coast. And that’s not the same as a more intimate and quicker stopover in Fiji (especially in the case of Sydney, where a change of terminal is required).
According to Batiweti, a “good percentage” of Australians are currently flying FJ through to North America.
“We could easily have at least 30 per cent of our flights full of [Australian] people” across to the US.
He added that while in the past it was “more families going for holidays”, more and more Aussie business travellers were utilising Fiji Airways services to the States.
The FJ difference
With US carriers upping their capacity to Australia, Batiweti told Karryon Fiji Airways would distinguish itself by its “product, award-winning service … the authentic Fijian hospitality”.
“We are in a very competitive market … for the most part of last year and this year, the capacity hasn’t come back between the US and Australia. But it’s coming back very strong at the back end of this [2022-23 Fijian financial] year.”
“So for the last year and a half, we’ve been building our brand and building our name in this category. And we’re hoping that will carry on even when competitors come back.”
Karryon is in Fiji for FTE 2023. Read about the event.