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Fiji’s national airline Air Pacific Limited and the Air Pacific Group have both reported after tax losses of $65.3 million and $59 million respectively for the financial period April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.
Announcing the results, Air Pacific chairman Nalin Patel labeled the 2009/10 financial year “the toughest in their history”.
“This was due to the ongoing impact of new competition and higher fuel costs as well as last year’s fuel hedging losses,” Patel said.
He said the journey back to acceptable levels of profitability will be a challenging one but he is confident it will happen with the new team the board has put in place.
The result compares to losses in the previous financial year of $5.2 million and $7.2 million respectively.
Air Pacific Ltd reduced costs by $18.7 million or three percent from the previous financial year but total revenue dropped by $106.9 million, a 17 percent reduction from 2008/09.
By Rachna Lal
