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The Fiji Islands Hotel and Tourism Association (FIHTA) says it is encouraged by prospects of national carrier Air Pacific code sharing with New Caledonia’s Air Calin to get Japanese tourists into Fiji.
FIHTA president Dixon Seeto said Air Pacific’s decision to pull out of Narita would have been based on many factors including the commercial viability of maintaining the route.
“And if we were to have a hand in it…but we don’t. It’s a pity because the FIHTA stand is that we would like to see as many air services out of our source market as possible. But we are encouraged by the fact that Air Calin might put a flight from Nadi to Noumea to Narita,” Seeto said.
Air Pacific is looking at the code share option after pulling the plug on flights to and from Narita, Tokyo last week, because of a gradual decline in Japanese tourist numbers to Fiji.
Latest visitor arrival figures from the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics show a declining trend in Japanese visitor numbers, from over 40,000 annually in the late 1990s to just over 20,000 annually between 2000 and 2007.
In 2007, the Bureau recorded 22,800 visitors from Japan, a mere four per cent of total visitor arrivals, in contrast to the over 10 percent of total annual visitor arrivals in the 1990s.
In a statement Monday, Fiji’s roving ambassador Ross Ligairi said an air services into Japan including third country code-sharing arrangements were being “aggressively explored” by the airline in close consultations with the government.
“This course of action is being taken given Japan’s continuing importance to Fiji, economically and historically. Given these long standing connections, Air Pacific have been engaged in preliminary talks with Air Calin of New Caledonia on a code share arrangement on the Nadi-Noumea-Narita flights,” said Ligairi.
“To kick start this partnership the two airlines are in consultations regarding the establishment of an airline capacity/commercial agreement. The option pursued is a code share service with Air Calin through Noumea to Narita (i.e. one stop) and not a service which goes direct from Nadi.”
There is no timeline on how soon these arrangements would be finalised but Japanese tourists could still come in and out of Fiji via other routes, notably through Korea, depending of course, on the cost.
“With any booking, you will look at the costs so the level of the fares through these routes will be an important factor in deciding whether or not to come,” Seeto said.
Aircalin operates five weekly direct flights between Noumea and Tokyo as well as twice weekly service between Noumea and Osaka, according to south-pacific.travel.
