Fiji Airways clarifies decision to fly to Israel was made independently after FLP raises questions

Fiji Airways has clarified that at no point did any Government Minister or other Government official exert any undue influence or pressure on the airline to operate the charter flight to Israel and the decision was made independently by Fiji Airways.

This comes as questions have been raised by the Fiji Labour Party on who will pay for the trip to Jerusalem in the first place.

In a statement, the airline says the decision to operate the charter flight was based on purely commercial considerations.

They say following the recent delivery of two new A350 aircraft into the Fiji Airways fleet, the airline has some excess wide-body aircraft time available, and operating charter flights is one way to utilise this excess aircraft time to generate additional revenue.

Fiji Airways says they have an established business relationship with the charterer of the Israel charter flight, who has a history of operating successful international charters, and making timely payments for previous charter services.

They say while the terms of the charter agreement are confidential between Fiji Airways and the charterer, they have confirmed that the charter is of commercial benefit to Fiji Airways.

Fiji Airways further says they do not operate on the basis of political or religious favouritism and treat all of their customers and charterers equally, and the decision to operate this charter was solely a business decision.

The airline says they are proud of its collaborative effort with the Government to safely repatriate our fellow Fijians from Israel.

They have also acknowledged the Fiji Airways pilots and crew who operated this significant flight.

Meanwhile, FLP claims they are reliably informed that the 238 people who took the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, owe the national airline some $2.3 million in unpaid charter charges.

They say they are surprised that Fiji Airways undertook the charter flight without its full cost being met and this certainly is well outside its customer credit policy.

The party alleges they understand the airline was pressured to take on this ‘pilgrimage’ flight by one of the Ministers in the Coalition Government.

The FLP further claims that the airline was told the payment is to be made from funds raise by the ‘pilgrims’ after their return.

FLP says this is just unbelievable and asks is the award winning airline now being coerced to grant favours to select religious groups. They further ask how will such a huge sum be paid by the people who travelled and will Fiji Airways end up writing off the amount or will the Minister responsible make it good.