NATIONAL carrier Fiji Airways is keeping a close watch on jet fuel price which has doubled globally this month since the Israeli-US war on Iran began in late February.
The airline’s managing director and chief executive officer Paul Scurrah said while the conflict in the Middle East was particularly a crisis for carriers in that region, it was still a shock to the rest of the aviation industry.
“And the shock we’re feeling at the moment, like every airline in the world, is a shock associated with the spike in fuel prices,” he said in an interview with The Fiji Times.
“And so obviously, we need to take measures to mitigate the impacts that has on our business.
“That is something that we’re monitoring on a daily basis, not just the price of fuel but the supply of fuel as well.
“And so every single day we’re checking on both of those factors.
“What we are contemplating doing, which every airline who’s affected is doing, is making sure that on our revenue side, we can recover enough to cover the increasing costs that’s coming with fuel.”
Mr Scurrah, who is credited with successfully navigating Virgin Australia through one of global aviation’s biggest disruptions in history, when, as its CEO, COVID-19 hit in 2020, grounding airlines all over the world, said as in any crisis, this one has an opportunity which they will capitalise on.
“And that is because we are, or we do have as Fiji, a reputation of being safe and family friendly, our relative distance from the conflict has seen what we think is a big increase in interest in coming to Fiji.
“So, it’s a very different crisis to COVID, it’s an interest to us to make sure we manage the costs and also to capitalise on the opportunity to get greater visitor numbers to Fiji.
“And the people of Fiji are relying on us to do that,” Mr Scurrah said.
