Air Pacific spreads its wings

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 30

Air Pacific spreads its wings

Air Pacific, Fiji’s “nice little airline," is spreading its wings. From mid-September it will fly three times a week between Nandi and Honolulu with a DCIO leased from an American carrier, Western Airlines. The move will extend the span of Air Pacific’s route system from Australia and Auckland through the islands of the South Pacific to Hawaii. The airline is already taking on the “big boys” of the aviation world by offering special low-fare deals between September and the end of the year. For instance, it is offering a SFI99 (SNZ29B) one-way fare from Nandi to Honolulu. This means that its round-trip fare of SNZS96, when combined with the cheapest Auckland-Nandi return fare (SNZS42), is about SNZIOO cheaper than the lowest round-trip fare of SNZI23B on the direct Auckland-Honolulu-Auckland services. But New Zealanders tempted to save a few dollars by transiting through Fiji should be aware of the fact that seats on Air Pacific’s Nandi-Honolulu sector can be bought only in Fiji, that seating is limited and might not necessarily be available on all flights, and that an additional SNZIS in Fiji departure taxes will be payable. Air Pacific’s regional manager for New Zealand, Mr Roger Hoskins, said the airline was conscious that it was not enough to sell only Fiji to the American market. Instead it intended to push the South Pacific, with emphasis on Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. . “Because our route structure centres around Fiji, our national tourist plant must be stimulated by the new service,” he said. “We have much more to gain if we take a wider view and look to encouraging Americans to visit three or four different countries in the Pacific. At certain times of the year there are no seats available out

of America to the South Pacific. We intend to fill that gap.” Air Pacific has come a long way since the days of the late 1970 s when it was forced to route all of its flights between Suva and Auckland through Tonga. Today it flies seven services a week to Fiji from Auckland — some direct to Nandi, others direct to Suva, but only two via Tonga. It uses twin-engine Boeing 737 and BAC 1-11 aircraft. If demand warrants, the airline might introduce the DCIO to the New Zealand route.

“We believe we must tap the potential of the South Island if we are to see any growth,” said the airline’s deputy chief executive, Mr Del Mannering, who was in Auckland a couple of weeks ago for “cooperative talks” with Air New Zealand. “We introduced the possibility of running a Christchurch-Nandi service, maybe using the DCIO or even on a pooling basis with Air New Zealand equipment, but Air New Zealand countered back on the basis of their past experience with flights to Fiji from Christchurch,” said Mr Mannering. “Air New Zealand felt that service had not succeeded and cautioned us against the desirability of it,” he said. However, Air New Zealand had agreed to make available some “highly attractive” fares from the South Eland in a bid to reduce the high domestic fare content of packaged holiday tours to Fiji. These new fares will be jointly marketed by both airlines through selected tour wholesalers from September 15 to December 10. “We will be able to gauge from the public’s response to these new low-priced packages the degree of support we would get from the South Island for any direct Christchurch-Nandi flights in the future,” said Mr Mannering. He added that Air Pacific’s ultimate aim was to reach a capacity agreement with Air New Zealand on the New Zealand-Fiji route, similar to that which Air New Zealand sought, and got, with Trans Australia Airlines on the ChristchurchHobart route. “What we are looking for is a fifty-fifty share of the market,” he said. The problem is compounded by the capacity of Air New Zealand’s big 747 s which transit through Nandi between Auckland and Los Angeles.