CAPTION: Air Pacific’s new Fiji Airways’ Airbus A330s will be Flying Ambassadors for Fiji from next month.
Arrival of new aircraft will provide passengers with improved schedule and more options to experience enhanced comfort and entertainment features of new A330.
Nadi, Fiji – Air Pacific, Fiji’s national carrier, has released an updated network schedule, highlighting routes to be served with its soon-to-arrive A330 aircraft. The arrival of new aircraft will also result in increased frequencies to Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles throughout 2013.
The first A330 commercial flight will provide passengers with a ‘pre-Fiji Airways’ sneak peak’ of the airline’s 24 business and 249 economy class seats, between Nadi, Fiji and Auckland, New Zealand on April 2nd.
Interior of the new Airbus.
The ‘pre-Fiji Airways sneak peak’ flights will provide passengers with an exciting opportunity to fly on the new A330 with its enhanced level of comfort and new in-flight entertainment, before the carrier changes its name offers a new service model and re-brands to become ‘Fiji Airways’ in June 2013. While the revised schedules reflect an earlier than expected delivery date of the airline’s first A330 from Airbus, other highlights of the changes include:
New Zealand – Fiji
– A330 service from Nadi to Auckland five times a week from April to July
Australia – Fiji
– A330 service from Nadi to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne
– Brisbane will be the first city in Australia to see the A330 on April 21st, with the A330 flying there five times a week until July
– Sydney A330 flights start on June 8th. Weekly flights by A330 and B737 aircraft will increase from 13 to 14 in September, offering customers a double daily every day of the week and up to 17 flights a week during the peak season.
– The first Melbourne A330 flight will be in December. Combined A330 and B737 frequencies will increase from 5 to 6 in the December peak period.
Hong Kong – Fiji
– The A330 will begin flights to Hong Kong starting on April 4th, flying there every Thursday and Saturday, with the last B747 flight taking place at the end of March. A third A330 flight will be added in January 2014 following the arrival of the airline’s third new A330.
United States – Fiji
A330s to Los Angeles and new B737 departure times to Honolulu
– The United States will see its first A330 flight to Los Angeles on July 1st. The current schedule of four B747 flights a week to LAX will be replaced with a mix of A330 and B747 services offering extra frequencies until November when the A330s will fully take over the route with daily service (7 flights per week). In addition, during peak travel periods, weekly flights will increase to 8 flights a week.
Underbelly and engine cowling design.
– Honolulu (via Apia) B737 flights will now depart Nadi at 13:35, instead of the current departure time of 20:50
– With the extra flights and an improved schedule, passengers will have more connecting flight opportunities via stop-over or continuation flights to Australia, New Zealand, the US and Hong Kong and nearby Pacific Islands.
In addition, extra flights will allow better connections to intra-Fiji destinations, via Air Pacific’s subsidiary carrier Pacific Sun, offering visitors to Fiji even better opportunities to spend more time in Fiji’s stunning outer islands like Taveuni, Vanua Levu (Savusavu), Kadavu, and the Mamanuca, Yasawa, and Lau group islands.
“The entire Air Pacific team is thrilled about the opportunity to start showing our regular customers and new visitors to Fiji our new state-of-the-art A330s in just 41 days,” said David Pflieger, Air Pacific’s Managing Director & CEO.”
“While our goal has always been to offer our customers the best flying experience in the Pacific, our new planes are going to make a huge difference in our ability to deliver on that promise, and we will be revealing even better service and other surprises when we officially become ‘Fiji Airways’ later this year.”
The airline’s new A330s are expected to be flying billboards for Fiji, and their stunning new livery, interiors, seats, lighting and in-flight entertainment will make a dramatic difference in making customers feel like they are already in Fiji on vacation as soon as they step on-board.
Makereta with her Fiji Airways Masi.
The plane’s new interior uses muted tones inspired by the Fijian islands’ elegant yet earthy beauty, and the exterior livery draws its inspiration from a striking new Masi symbol designed by local artist Makereta Matemosi, originally from the island of Namuka-I-Lau in the eastern Fiji islands.
Powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, the new aircraft are the first wide-bodied, modern aircraft the airline has ever purchased and their new engines will emit 40% less CO2, allowing Fiji’s national airline to substantially reduce its carbon footprint.
By the end of 2013, Air Pacific will have retired its B747s, repainted and upgraded all of its B737s, rolled out new uniforms, and introduced a number of new customer service enhancements to reflect and elevate the new brand of ‘Fiji Airways’.
About Air Pacific
Founded in 1951, Air Pacific is the national airline of Fiji. It aims to become the airline of choice of the South Pacific, and the purchase and introduction of three new re-branded “Fiji Airways” Airbus A330-200s to replace its fleet of Boeing B747-400s and B767s will be the capstone of the airline’s success and turnaround from record losses just 3 years ago. From its hub at Nadi International Airport, Air Pacific and its subsidiary Pacific Sun fly to 15 cities in 10 countries. Destinations include Australia, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. Air Pacific aircraft bring in over 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, and the two companies together employ over 900 employees, earn revenues of over F$675 million ($380m USD), and directly contribute a significant portion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Air Pacific will soon be ‘Fiji Airways’. Visit www.fijiairways.com for more information.