Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Tourism Fiji committed to national carrier despite loss

Posted at 21:53 on 01 November, 2009 UTC

The head of Tourism Fiji says a viable national carrier is integral to the health of his country’s tourism industry.

The comment follows Air Pacific’s announcement of a pre-tax loss of almost six point five million US dollars for 2008/2009.

The airline, historically one of the world’s more profitable, has suffered the effects of the global recession and had to contend with a fall in tourism numbers since the 2006 coup.

Patrick Wong says he’d like to see Air Pacific making more flights to Australia and opening up new regions.

“Flying out of non-mainstream ports. As you know a low-cost carrier has a better flexibility as far as operational costs, planning and venturing out of non-mainstream ports and if they do that then it opens up a totally different region for us in Australia which we will have access and better market penetration.”