Fiji Airways has admitted its in-flight catering was not up to standard during a transition to a more affordable programme, as it battled high fuel prices.
Airline managing director and chief executive officer Paul Scurrah told the Standing Committee on Social Affairs that the airline was paying three times more than similar airlines for catering and had to make difficult decisions to keep flying.
“Every airline in the world cut back a little bit on their catering because of the astronomical price of fuel,” Mr Scurrah said.
“It’s a difference between whether we fly or whether we don’t fly,” he said.
Mr Scurrah was responding to Opposition Member of Parliament Ketan Lal who said he had received complaints from passengers about pizza slices served as meals on long-haul flights.
“We are Fijians, we love to eat and especially on a long-haul flight, passengers do get hungry,” Mr Lal said.
Mr Scurrah responded that the airline knew it would face criticism for offering a service more akin to a short-haul domestic flight during the transition, but he said they did so to maintain their record flight schedule, which brought 106,000 tourists in July and more than one million in 12 months for the first time.
He said the new catering program now being rolled out is “far better” and more affordable, helping keep airfares down.
He also apologised to passengers for the inconvenience.
“We’re not shying away from the criticism because we ourselves know that we can do better.”
Mr Scurrah said that in the last eight weeks, independent review sites like TripAdvisor, Google Review and Trustpilot ranked the airline number one in the region again.
Mr Lal had raised concerns that despite being the national carrier, Fiji Airways must ensure its services met the expectations of Fijians and reflected the country’s reputation for hospitality.
“As the national carrier, Fiji Airways carries Fiji’s name and must reflect top-notch service, especially for Fijians.”
Recently, the standard of food served aboard Fiji Airways flights had become an issue of discussion on social media among travellers.
In July this year, the airline revealed it had forked out $150m more for fuel in the three months prior, compared to that same period last year, as the company continued to encounter strong headwinds from elevated jet fuel prices.
