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Fiji’s national airline Air Pacific Limited, despite reporting a loss of $65.3 million for the financial period April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010, is confident of bouncing back in the next financial year.
Air Pacific chief executive officer and managing director Dave Pflieger said while much of the 2009/10 losses were due to lower fares caused by increased competition, the impact of the global financial crisis and fuel hedging losses, last year’s results are clearly unacceptable going forward.
“The 2010/11 financial year looks to be a challenging one due to the slow economic recovery and continued competition from overseas airlines,” he said.
Pflieger said however that amidst the challenges, he has seen many opportunities for Air Pacific.
“That is why I am confident that hard work and a team effort by everyone here will ensure that Air Pacific will thrive for another 50 years.”
“The world is different now and maintaining the status quo is not an option and Air Pacific and our domestic carrier Pacific Sun both have to change if we are to succeed,” he said.
Pflieger said this is the reason they began a strategic review of both airlines in May and upon completion of the review, they will have a team and a plan in place to turn things around.
“For those who may be waiting for our strategic review to be finished before they see change, don’t wait. The ability of our team to move quickly and to succeed was recently demonstrated in our joint efforts with Airports Fiji Limited and Civil Aviation Authority of the Fiji Islands to plan and quickly implement new service and direct flights from Suva to Auckland,” he said.
By Rachna Lal
