When Nadi International Airport opened its doors after the forced border closure in March 2020, the atmosphere was electric as the first tourist flight landed that morning, signifying a monumental moment for Fiji’s tourism industry amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Picture the anticipation and pride among airport staff members as they meticulously prepared for the arrival, wiping down surfaces, adjusting masks, and ensuring a safe and polished appearance awaited Fiji’s first visitors in 20 months who were eagerly testing newfound travel freedoms.
The excitement mirrored what it must have felt for those witnessing the first-ever flight into Fiji’s airspace over 70 years ago— so we’ve come a long way.
The reopening symbolised the resilience displayed by the entire nation in combating the pandemic and many more years of reopening safely after weather-related challenges.
The post-pandemic collaborative eff orts between Fiji Airports, a host of government agencies, the police and military, the tourism industry and supportive development partner stakeholders was a rarely before seen concerted eff ort to reopen safely, as one of the first countries to do so in the Pacific.
Aviation plays a critical role in Pacific Island States, contributing significantly to their economic wellbeing and sustainable development.
Apart from global connectivity, airports serve as gateways, allowing tourists to visit our beautiful, tourism-dependent islands that in turn, positively impact local economies.
Well-functioning airports even enhance a country’s reputation and destination brand value.
In the Fiji context, we rely as an industry on this key element to provide the first and last, positive visitor experience.
Fiji Airports, established in 1999 under the Public Enterprise Act, recently celebrated its 25th Silver Jubilee Anniversary, marking a quarter-century as Fiji’s largest gatekeepers and using the milestone to unveil its new logo.
This milestone marker and significant role has shaped Fiji’s connectivity and supported tourism growth and national economic development.
Operating 15 airports, including Nadi and Nausori International, Fiji Airports manages vital air traffic services within the Nadi Flight Information Region, ensuring safe and efficient travel across Fiji and neighbouring countries and handles over 2.1 million international passengers annually, facilitating tourism and trade that is so crucial to the nation’s economy.
Nadi International Airport’s proximity to tourism hotspots — that age-old industry requirement that hotels be at least within an hour’s reach from the airport — makes travel more convenient and airline schedules more flexible.
But as years of demand have grown, the flourishing of airport hotels has also generated significant response with room inventory supply in various budgetary options that allow for late flight arrival stopovers that can then connect to island ferries or flights the next morning, or make early morning departures more convenient and less stressful.
The “dusting off ” of further airport development as part of Nadi Airports’ planned ambitious modernisation projects announced last week, is expected to align with global aviation standards and provide a seamless experience for passengers.
Many might recall a media interview in December 2019 when Fiji Airports announced a $3billion dollar investment for the upgrade and expansion of the airport as a part of its larger master plan.
A master plan that goes back over 30 years, and that has for several reasons been stalled, including political and personal agendas and the ever-present funding issues.
Capacity challenges were being experienced leading up to 2019 and with the advance notice of the national airline’s planned fleet expansion, one would expect that some of those long-term investment plans would have been commenced – even if only in incremental steps to start the ball rolling.
As frequent travellers know through painful experience, airport expansions can take years.
The Sydney Airport renovations before hosting the 2000 Olympics cost $A1billion dollars at the time and by 2014 the masterplan was redone to cater for the next 20years for $A38 billion.
More recently Auckland Airport’s $NZ3.9billion redevelopment project that is about to be completed includes combining the domestic and international terminals and replacing the domestic terminal.
All these plans promote improved passenger experiences, increase capacity for flights and passengers, boost tourism and economic impact and support positive visitor experiences.
Globally, governments understand these benefits and here in Fiji, we must accept that our growing challenges on being able to accommodate more flights, more visitors and improve the overall visitor experience have been long overdue.
The redevelopment plans are therefore not entirely new as the basic understanding of how critical it is for the airport to expand has been in place for decades.
But as we know only too well, it requires several ministries and government agencies to work together to get these plans off the ground — to organise and agree with land and road access, for power, water and waste management connectivity, to support large scale infrastructure development that requires wider consultation and input for local government and planning services.
Then we need to factor in access to the required specialised skills and finally, whether we have the estimated costing correct and even more critically, whether the government-owned entity can access the funds it needs.
Fiji Airways needs more space for its enlarged and more efficient fleet.
Improving runway access allows Fiji to invite more air traffic movement. Domestic travellers need better-appointed airports around the country that would support increased air travel capability and connections.
Cargo and freight movement can be enhanced with more efficient processing.
Airport tenancy can be greatly improved from the current, limited options with office space and shopping experiences.
International travellers are experiencing long delays in immigration departure areas and baggage arrivals halls as we buckle under the strain of the May to September high seasons, or see the impact of ageing infrastructure when the roofs leak during the rainy season.
One thing should be clear to all concerned, but especially to Government’s budget allocation process – the longer we delay these renovations and redevelopment plans – the more it will cost us.
Long-term visioning is required that will provide short-, medium and long-term benefits for the entire economy.
And while we’re looking for ways to grow our economy, the fastest is undoubtedly to provide tourism with the room and support it needs to grow.
Looking ahead, Fiji Airports’ future contributions to Fiji’s success and the aviation and tourism industry remain promising.
FHTA wishes Fiji Airports a happy 25th anniversary and expresses confidence in its ability to shape a brighter future for tourism and aviation in Fiji.
While we will strongly support efforts to get the airport redevelopment plans underway, we also support wider consultation on the eventual recovery of costs to ensure the airports can maintain their operational viability.
As other global international airports have shown; long-term airport planning and redevelopments are critical to tourism and therefore economic growth, but they come at great cost that often result in passing on these costs to airport users.
The concerns raised globally on the consequential increase of airfares, airport office and retail space, as well as airport parking will no doubt be experienced here.
Fantasha Lockington is the CEO of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association.
The views expressed are not necessarily those of The Fiji Times.
To share a comment or thoughts on the article, please send an email to info@fhta.com.fj.
