Fiji Times, 3 April – THE addition of a new narrow-bodied aircraft to Fiji Airways fleet has been labelled a “landmark” deal for the country.
The national carrier will welcome the first Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in November this year, and company CEO and managing director Andre Viljoen said this would be beneficial to the company.
“Our number of aircraft will grow from 15 to 24, where we believe we will have eight wide-bodied, eight narrow-bodied, four ATRs and four Twin Otters,” he said.
“Our first MAX 8 arrives in November this year followed by the other three early next year. This will result in Fiji Airways having one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world by the end of 2019.”
He said Fiji Airways would be the first airline in the South Pacific that would fly the narrow-bodied aircraft.
“In terms of our role played in the economy, Fiji Airways is targeting a growth going forward of 8 per cent a year, 4 per cent from organic growth which consists of existing routes, having increased frequencies or larger aircraft and 4 per cent being new destinations.
“We will increase our number of passengers in the next three years from 1.6 million to 1.9 million and in five years to 2.2 million and in 10 years to 3.1 million.”
