This is just the start, says Fiji Airways

This is just the start, says Fiji Airways
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Fiji Airways acting chief executive Aubrey Swift has insisted the rebrand of Air Pacific to Fiji Airways is “only the start” for the new-look carrier as he described the overhaul as one of the most important events in the airline’s history.

Speaking to Travel Today last night at a function to mark the first official operational day for Fiji Airways, Swift said the transformation is not only about the present but is “setting the airline up for the future”.

Fiji Airways will align the carrier directly with its home nation and put a stop to the confusion surrounding the Air Pacific brand, he said.

“When we looked at it, Air Pacific just didn’t resonate with our customers,” Swift explained. “People who know us know who we are but people in China and the US thought we were an air conditioning company.

“Fiji Airways is what it is. It allows us to align with destination marketing. That was our real problem. When we were in partnership with Tourism Fiji, and other destination marketers selling Fiji, Air Pacific just didn’t naturally align. Now it does. Fiji Airways is what it says on the tin.”

The name will also get more traction with web searches, he said.

While the official name change took effect yesterday, there remains work to be done in terms of new service routines and staff training, Swift continued.

Replacing its ageing 747s with the third Airbus A330 is also a few months away, he said.

“That will happen in November when we will have our full complement of A330s,” Swift said. “The 747 is a beautiful old aircraft and I love flying on it but it is showing its age.

“One of the key things is that it guzzles fuel. We get a 40% fuel saving by operating an A330 compared to a jumbo so you get huge fuel efficiencies.”

Far from settling with the rebrand and transformation from Boeing to Airbus, Swift said it will set the carrier up for the future.

“It allows us to look at opportunities, about getting more aircraft into the fleet and putting more destinations on the route map,” he told Travel Today. “As this transition comes to an end we’ll start looking at where there are growth opportunities and where do we take our product.

“This is not the end. This is just the start of the next phase of the journey. We won’t just sit tight. We can look at revitalising and modernising our short haul fleet. There’s a whole host of things we can do.”

Fiji Airways will ramp up Sydney frequencies to 14 weekly, rising to 17 in peak periods while Los Angeles will rise from four to six from this weekend before going daily in November when its third A330 arrives.

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