Fiji Airways opens glitzy business lounge at Nadi

Fiji Airways has opened a glitzy “world-class” business passenger lounge at Nadi International Airport, as it enjoys record profits.

Airline managing director and chief executive Andre Vilijoen says the 887sq m lounge is one of a kind.

Features include a creche with nannies for children, constellation star lighting, a live plant wall and spa facilities, Vilijoen said.

The opening of the lounge, which is also available to economy passengers for NZ$70, rounded off a “tremendous” year for the airline.

“We’ve had a tremendous year of successes and the missing piece was a world-class lounge,” he said.

From concept to opening, the lounge — which caters for up to 200 people — took 12 months to create.

In the past financial year Fiji Airways posted a record annual profit of more than F$84.5 million before tax, up from F$70.2m the previous year. It posted group revenue of F$825.3m, up from F$815.3m, and has hit record profitability for three consecutive years.

Air New Zealand is Fiji Airways’ biggest competitor in New Zealand and played a large role in fundamentals of operations, Vilijoen said.

“A very significant number of our tourists [to Fiji] are from New Zealand and we have [Air NZ] as a very significant and respected competitor, and so we’ve had to up our game to make sure we are competitive.”

Fiji Airways, formerly known as Air Pacific, began a transformation in 2012, adding a string of new aircraft to its fleet and new branding.

More than 120,000 Kiwis visit Fiji every year on average, with New Zealand tourist numbers second highest to Australia.

Fiji Airways now has a fleet of 15 aircraft and is set to take on two more, Vilijoen said. “We’ve got five 777 Max’s coming in 2018 and 2019 and that’s revamping our entire narrow body short haul fleet, and then we’ve got two temporary aircraft coming in until we get new aircraft.

“We’ve got a steady growth target year on year which aligns with the tourism growth that the country is looking for so our long term plan is to ensure that we grow to deliver the connectivity for tourism.”

Fiji Airways operates 15 flights from New Zealand weekly, from Auckland daily and Christchurch and Wellington three times per week.

There were no plans to increase the number of flights from New Zealand, Vilijoen said.

Fiji’s Attorney-General and Minister of Civil Aviation, Aiyaz Sayed- Khaiyum, said Fiji Airways valued quality over quantity.

“We are not necessarily going for higher volume, but we are going for sustained growth,” he said.

“When you just focus on volumes it does not become sustainable and the product line needs to be robust enough to react to global changes.”

Tourism accounts for 20 per cent of Fiji’s GDP.

Nadi International Airport has been undergoing a series of upgrades which were important to the growth of Fiji and its tourism sector, he said.