Fiji Airways on plans for New Zealand and the campaign that cut the cost of Kiwi holidays

Fiji Airways has a fleet of 20 aircraft and flies to Australia, Australia and the US. Photo / Supplied.

Fiji Airways is about to push down the throttle on its New Zealand recovery to cater for a bounce back in tourists, many attracted by a campaign to cut the cost of holidays in the islands.

From the end of the week the airline steps up flights from Auckland to Nadi to daily (from four times a week now), and resumes twice a week flights from Wellington and Christchurch.

While demand is around 40 per cent down on before the pandemic, the airline's managing director and chief executive Andre Viljoen says the recovery in demand is growing by the week.

This has been helped by the Fiji Government investing F$40m (NZ$27.8m) in subsidising 100,000 holidays by F$400 shared among the airline and hotels. This meant good package deals for holidaymakers and he said 70,000 of the holidays had been sold already.

The airline has been flying to Australia since the end of last year and bookings were running 15 per cent ahead of the same week in 2019. Daily flights to Los Angeles had been restored and the airline flew to San Francisco up to four times a week.

Overall bookings for the year to date were 290,000, 18 per cent down on pre-Covid levels, which he said was very encouraging and had exceeded forecasts.

Fiji Airways was an early customer for Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft. Image / Supplied

One trend emerging was high demand for the high-yielding business class cabins from travellers ready to splurge after being stuck at home for years. Viljoen said on some flights from the United States and Australia business class was full.

Luxury resorts on Fiji were also experiencing strong demand, he said.

Besides inbound holidaymakers there is a big visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market in New Zealand.

The airline had enjoyed around a decade of fleet renewal and profitability when the pandemic hit over two years ago and it immediately went into survival mode, laying off half of its 750 staff and parking much of its 20-aircraft fleet.

The airline, with government guarantees, raised about F$650m to keep it in business.

Viljoen said the airline didn't shut down completely with some internal inter-island services and freight services.

"The narrative every day was working together to survive and being ready immediately to thrive. The constant focus was on revamp, fix up, redo and being ready to push the button when we were ready to fly."

Fiji Airways managing director and chief executive, Andre Viljoen. Photo / Supplied

As Covid restrictions have loosened in Fiji and in the countries the airline serves, demand has spiked up quickly. Some valuable markets, Hong Kong, Japan and many other Pacific countries, remain largely closed.

He said the airline now has five Boeing 737-Max aircraft in addition to two Airbus A350s, four A330s and a Boeing 737-800 on its international network. It uses Max aircraft, Boeing has modified with new flying instructions since two fatal crashes at other airlines, and A330s on its New Zealand route.

Fiji Airways how had "wellness champions" on international flights. These were medically trained crew, most often nurses, in addition to flight attendants who ensured that all Covid protocols were being adhered to and were on hand if anyone felt unwell.

Rising oil prices had forced it to increase standard fares by about 5 per cent and he said the operating environment would be challenging this year as other costs rose.