As many as 35,000 people have booked seats on Fiji Airways flights for the month of April alone.

Airline CEO Andre Viljoen said this was an encouraging trend that the company recorded following the announcement of the removal of travel restrictions. “We are very happy with the trends that we are having,” he said.

“To give you an example, we count a traveller both ways. So when we say two flights, that is a person travelling in and out.

“So, for our bookings for April, we recorded more than 70,000 bookings.

“This is in and out, so that’s 35,000 people, and that’s a very high number.”

He said the airline expects an increase in bookings during the peak tourist season. “It’s growing all the time.

“We measure the number of bookings per day and it’s growing.

“Overall, for our network, we are growing at about 11 per cent week by week.

“Markets like Australia are 15 per cent per week and New Zealand, which has just taken off, is increasing at 38 per cent per week.

“So we are very happy with the bookings.”