In 2022, Fiji Airways carried a remarkable 1.3 million passengers and based on booking trend, 2023 would be even more successful as passenger numbers are expected to continue at an upward trajectory.
Assistant Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Alitia Bainivalu made the comment yesterday while responding to President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere’s opening speech in Parliament.
Ms Bainvalu said the success was a true testament to the airline’s commitment to providing quality products and services to its customers.
“The industry, our national airline, have done wonderfully well,” Ms Bainivalu said.
She said the tourism industry had exceeded expectations in terms of recovery.
“We went from 146,905 visitors in 2020, which was a 16 per cent of the 2019 levels, to a recovery of 71 per cent today.
“We have had record-breaking numbers for the month of July, September and November compared to 2019 and we have never seen so many Australians in a single month as we did in December last year.”
She said since the opening of borders and easing of travel restrictions, passenger air transport had been recovering well with passenger numbers hitting almost 70 per cent of prepandemic numbers.
“Economic forecast also show that high visitor numbers and related spending, combined with high prices boosted tourism receipts as for overseas exchange transaction records reports with just over $1.4 billion.
“So tourism, truly, is a multi-billion dollar industry for us.”
She said based on the current booking trend and overwhelming demand for Fiji as a tourism destination of choice, Fiji Airways would be expecting passenger numbers and forward bookings to increase.
