Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has recognized the efforts put together by the Fiji Airways team in ensuring that the national airline was kept afloat during and after COVID-19.
While speaking at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on Tuesday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said if it wasn’t for the team the circumstances would have been different.
“If it had not been for Andre I don’t know where we would be and of course the board because they were able to provide that level of expertise, that level of commitment for us as a government to be able to support the national carrier,” he said.
“About 18 months ago, when the government took the initiative to support Fiji Airways it did so in the backdrop of many other airlines in the world.
“For Fiji of course, we do not have the capacity to provide direct funds to the airline itself. Countries like New Zealand, for example, gave about $900 million directly from their budget allocation to Air New Zealand.
“Fiji did not have the capacity, nor does it have the capacity now. So we work very closely with Fiji Airways, Andre and his team, the chair on the board to come up with a solution that will ensure that Fiji Airways remains flying because we all knew that one day we’ll get through COVID, there had to be a game plan we had to think long term.”
And after the announcement that Fiji National Provident Fund would be the second largest shareholder for Fiji Airways, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said he was frankly surprised that FNPF did not participate as a shareholder much earlier.
“Any person looking at a long term investment, quick rate of return would have actually invested in Fiji a long time ago. In particular because if you actually have a long term perspective, you know that it will see a price window as a result. It would bounce back one day like satisfying in the same way.
“So we hope FNPF as shareholders and as ourselves look forward to working with them. “The airline is running very well. And the idea is now to be strategic about it. And indeed of course in the future to even find greater and better strategic partners.” The AG also welcomed the announcement by Fiji Airways regarding their new direct flight to Vancouver.
“Vancouver is very exciting. My mantra for Fiji Airways is that Fiji Airways flies to every single continent that rims the Pacific Ocean except South America.
“We now doing San Francisco, LA, Vancouver, Narita, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington except South America.
“So as Andre said it makes us an even greater hub. Not just for others, but indeed other countries beyond that look to Fiji for better connectivity.”
Fiji Airways managing director and chief executive officer Andre Viljoen said during the first few days of COVID, suspending business left them in a state of shock and bewilderment.
He said on April 1 they suddenly faced unprecedented daunting challenges and as a result of border closures all the airlines domestic and international passenger services were suspended including their aircraft put into short term storage
“Revenue dropped to almost zero, our recurring monthly fixed costs payments totaled $39m, we had limited cash reserves that would at best cover the next four to five months payments, we were faced with the stressful ongoing uncertainty of when flying would resume (our and the industry initial 3-month estimate turned out to be almost 22 months) and what ramp-up back to normal will look like ( all our models used very conservative estimates of 18 months),” he said.
