National carrier Air Pacific plans to re-introduce jet-operated international flights into Nausori Airport in Suva on July 2 following approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Fiji Islands.
Approval was received after Airports Fiji Limited completed upgrading the airport to allow Air Pacific’s Boeing 737-700 aircraft to operate safely into the airport.
“Air Pacific is extremely pleased that we will be able to resume jet services into Nausori, and we want to thank our government as well as AFL and CAAFI for making this possible,” Air Pacific managing director and chief executive officer Dave Pflieger said.
Airline sales and reservations teams yesterday started selling the direct Suva to Auckland service.
“This service has always been popular for business and government travel, as well as our residents in the Suva and eastern part of Fiji who want to visit friends and relatives in New Zealand,” Mr Pflieger said.
The Suva-Auckland service will initially resume with a weekly Friday flight, and the airline will add a second weekly flight at the same scheduled time on Mondays, beginning in August.
The confirmed schedule will be as follows:
* Fridays (and Mondays beginning in August). FJ430 AKL-SUV: Departs 8am Arrives 11:05am;
* FJ431 SUV-AKL: Departs 12:15pm Arrives 3:20pm;
Air Pacific will operate with a Boeing 737-700 aircraft with eight seats in Tabua-Business Class and 110 in Pacific Voyager-Economy Class.
The new Suva service will complement Air Pacific’s existing Nadi-Auckland schedule of up to 13 weekly flights, in addition to the weekly Nadi-Christchurch flight.