Air Pacific to Struggle on Australia to Fiji route

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, February 25, 2010

National carrier Air Pacific say they will face ‘abnormal’ competition against two Australian-based airlines flying the Sydney to Nadi route.

Air Pacific chief executive John Campbell say the Australian routes are extremely important for Air Pacific and represent one of their major sources of turnover.

However airline V Australia has been flying this route from December last year while the Qantas-owned JETSTAR airline will commence operations soon on the same route.

Campbell says that collectively, both airlines will add around 50 per cent more seats on the Sydney route, which is greatly in excess of the growth appetite of the market.

He says there will be some stimulated growth driven by artificially low prices and Air Pacific is expecting to lose some of its share to the new capacity.

In order to preserve its market share, Campbell says Air Pacific is competing on price on all routes and will work closely with the tourism industry to help build visitor arrivals to fill the available seats and hotels.

The airline believes that the world is still recovering from the

global financial crisis and it will take some time for consumers, particularly from the USA, to feel confident in spending money on holidays.

As a result, Campbell says the year will be challenging and will require constant promotional activity to keep flights at a reasonable load factor.