Surges in fuel prices and infrastructure limitations are all major challenges that Fiji Airways deals with, says airline managing director and CEO Andre Viljoen.
During an interview with The Fiji Times‘ online platform, the Lens @177, Mr Viljoen said they were very pleased with the post-COVID recovery they had made, however, the airline industry was always subjected to “storms”.
“We’ll have a good profit this year and we’re, as an airline, on a good track, but it’s never the end, the airline industry is always subjected to storms,” he said.
“We see fuel prices coming up again with the Israeli war and Ukraine war. So, there is an ongoing challenge in the business.
“But we are satisfied with the progress, and we continue with our strategic objective. It’s driven off our vision to be the most loved, the most flown and the most profitable airline in the Pacific. And that’s a journey. That’s a big challenge and we’re on that track.”
He said fuel prices had gone up to about $145 a barrel, a contrast to $65 a barrel in 2017. Mr Viljoen said this was beyond their control.
“The second is the airport infrastructure that just isn’t matching the level of capacity we’re bringing in today. And my concern is how quick we can get it up to a better level for growth.
“The third is the lack of hotel rooms. The time it takes to build a hotel property is much longer than for us to acquire an aircraft and how we can get rooms growing in the country.
“And so, the other thing is retaining key staff now. If you want to retain top people, you have to pay.”
Mr Viljoen said if this wasn’t done, those staff would end up getting better offers from overseas.
