FIJI Airways carried as many as 1.3 million passengers in 2022.
The airline is now aiming to transport two million passengers this year.
In an interview with Forbes Magazine, airline CEO and managing director Andre Viljoen said bookings for the first six months of 2023 was higher than last year. “In 2022 the Fiji Airways group carried a total of 1.3 million passengers, and that forward-bookings for the six-month period from January to June, 2023 are 41.6 per cent ahead of the same period in 2019,” he said.
“It is a remarkable achievement that in our first full year of operations post the COVID19 pandemic, with a number of key markets still closed and a challenging global operational environment, we managed to carry in excess of one million passengers.
“Our forecast for 2023 full-year is to carry two million passengers.
“This is beyond anything that we could have imagined when borders reopened and flights resumed on December 1, 2021.”
He said they had anticipated and planned for a slow ramp-up in service.
“We were pleasantly surprised to see the demand for travel to Fiji.
“Within months we had returned to 70 per cent of our international markets, and currently only Hong Kong and Narita in Japan remain closed.
“We are returning to these destinations in April of 2023.”
According to the report, the Fiji Airways group brought in 70 per cent of all visitors who flew to Fiji, employs over 1000 employees and was targeting to earn revenues of over $F1.5 billion ($US680m) in 2023.
