FIJI Airports Ltd spent $60 million on the runway at Nausori International Airport with the hope that more international flights will land there.
Unfortunately, the international flights that used to fly out of Nausori to Sydney and Auckland once a week did not continue after October 2022.
Fiji Airports Ltd CEO Mesake Nawari revealed this in his submission to the Parliamentary standing committee on Social Affairs saying Fiji Airways’ decision to discontinue servicing international flights from Nausori was a commercial one.
He said majority of tourists coming to Fiji were going to Nadi.
“This may be an area that Government can look at in how it can support Fiji Airways to start flying some international flights and bring visitors here,” Mr Nawari said.
He said that would also help Fiji Airports make the necessary investment.
“You make $60m and you get $9m, almost $10m loss every year, it doesn’t make commercial sense unless there is support provided, at least on the capital expenditure side.
“We are looking at the options for Nausori now and we should take it to our board in June, and hopefully go to the Minister for Civil Aviation and Minister for Finance to see how we can work on the capital expenditure to at least expand the current building and or build a new international terminal Nausori.”
For Fiji Airports, he said once that’s done, they will be able to build the commercial properties to support and sustain the operations of the airport.
“We just need a funding partnership in there or something similar to what is happening in Labasa with World Bank providing some funding and Fiji Airports providing some funding in there.”
