Fiji Airways (FJ, Nadi) has confirmed reports that it intends to acquire an additional two A350-900s, with the aircraft destined to replace its A330-200s and A330-300 on routes to San Francisco, Vancouver International, Hong Kong International, and Singapore Changi.
"This year we will be adding an additional two A350-900s to our fleet," Fiji Airways Managing Director and CEO Andre Viljoen said in a statement. "Further details will be announced in the coming weeks but the new aircraft allow us to add more capacity to our existing routes and explore further growth of our network." Fiji-based media are reporting the two aircraft will arrive in early 3Q 2023 and Fiji Airways has informed ch-aviation that the planes will be leased.
Currently, the state-owned carrier operates two A350-900s in addition to three A330-200s, one A330-300, one B737-800, five B737-8s, one ATR42-600, two ATR72-600s, and four DHC-6-400s. Fiji's Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad told the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation this week that the A330s released from their current routings will be used to increase flights to Sydney Kingsford Smith, Auckland International, Melbourne Tullamarine, and Brisbane International to "increase capacity, match customer demand, and offer more freight space.”
Tourism-dependent Fiji is seeing passenger traffic into Nadi recover nicely and forward travel bookings to the country are now comfortably exceeding pre-pandemic levels. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of North America-based travellers crossing the Pacific using Fiji as a transit and stopover point. In the last week, Fiji Airways has resumed flights to Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong. Services to Seoul Incheon are also reported to be recommencing in the near future.
