Question: Which country does the airline Air Pacific come from?
Answer: Fiji

Air Pacific Limited, trading as Fiji Airways (and formerly as Air Pacific), is the flag carrier airline of Fiji. It is based in Nadi and operates international and domestic services to 10 countries and 17 cities around the Pacific Ocean, including Oceania, the United States and Hong Kong. Fiji Airways annually transports almost two-thirds of the visitors to the country.

The first commercial flight as Fiji Airways was made in 1951 but the airline's origins date back to Katafaga Estates Ltd. formed in 1947. After being acquired by Qantas in 1958, Katafaga Estates was retooled as a regional airline and renamed Air Pacific. In May 2012, the airline announced that it would reintroduce the name Fiji Airways to reinforce its role as the national airline of Fiji. The Fiji government owns 52% of the airline and Qantas 46%, with the governments of several Pacific island nations holding the remainder.

History

Origins

The airline was founded by Australian aviator Harold Gatty who in 1931 had been the navigator on a record-breaking round-the-world flight with Wiley Post. Gatty moved to Fiji after World War II and registered the airline in 1947 as Katafaga Estates Ltd., after the coconut estate Gatty had established on Fiji's eastern island group. Gatty renamed the airline as Fiji Airways in September 1951. The New Zealander Fred Ladd was Fiji Airways' first Chief Pilot. 

Air Pacific

After Gatty's death in 1958, Fiji Airways was acquired by Qantas. Initially, Qantas tried to create international support for a multinational, shared, regional airline. By 1966 Fiji Airways's shareholders included the governments of Tonga, Western Samoa, Nauru, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.

After Fiji gained independence from Great Britain in 1970, the new national government began buying shares and the airline was renamed Air Pacific to reflect its regional presence.

By the early 1970s, seven Pacific island governments, some still under British rule at the time, held shares in Air Pacific, in addition to shares held by Qantas, TEAL (now Air New Zealand) and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (later merged to form British Airways). However, the regional airline idea lost support as some of the shareholding Pacific island governments sold their shares and created their own national airlines.

In the 1970s, tourism became the nation's leading industry, which made the airline even more important to the Fijian economy; and the government of Fiji acquired a controlling interest in Air Pacific in 1974. In 1981, the New York Times published an article that included details on the Fiji government's plan to buy out more shareholders in order to gain more control of Air Pacific as the national airline. However, the airline received no subsidies from the government and had to buy its own aircraft.

In the 1990s the airline relocated its headquarters from the capital city of Suva to the coastal town of Nadi where the main international airport is located. The company also constructed an elaborate aircraft maintenance center there. In 2007, Air Pacific acquired Sun Air, a domestic airline, renamed it Pacific Sun and began operations as Air Pacific's domestic and regional subsidiary. In June 2014, Pacific Sun was rebranded to Fiji Link.

Flight history

Fiji Airways' first flight was on 1 September 1951, when a seven-seater de Havilland Dragon Rapide biplane departed Suva's Nausori Airport for Drasa Airport near Lautoka, on the west coast of the main island. The airline's first international flight to Brisbane, Australia was on 1 June 1973.

In 1983 it started flights to the USA with a route to Honolulu called “Project America.”

In December 2009, Air Pacific commenced a twice weekly service to Hong Kong, which was increased to three services in January 2014. In July 2010 Air Pacific announced a new Suva-Auckland service.

Today, the airline and its domestic/regional subsidiary, Fiji Link, operate over 400 flights a week to almost 15 cities in 10 countries around the world.

Fleet history

In the beginning Fiji Airways used small de Havilland Dragon Rapide and de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover aircraft. The fleet grew to include two ATR 42 turboprops and two leased jets, a Boeing 747 and a Boeing 767. By the late 1990s, the fleet included both Boeing 737 and 767 jets, while the ATR 42 turboprops were used on flights to neighboring islands.

The 2000 Fijian coup d'état devastated the country's tourism industry and overall economy, which led to a substantial decrease in travel to Fiji. Faced with a falloff in air traffic, Air Pacific returned one of its two leased Boeing 747s.

In April 2011, Air Pacific announced that it had cancelled its order of eight Boeing 787-9s due to delivery delays of almost four years by Boeing. In October 2011, Air Pacific announced that it had ordered three Airbus A330-200s.

In March 2013 the company received its first Airbus A330. It was christened The Island of Taveuni and had its first flight to Auckland on 2 April. Today the fleet includes three Airbus A330-200s, one Airbus A330-300, four Boeing 737-800s and one Boeing 737-700. Fiji Link operates with two ATR 72-600, an ATR 42-600 and three de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft.

Partnerships

In conjunction with Qantas, Air Pacific helped pioneer the concept of codeshare agreements in the early 1980s. Today, codesharing is an accepted airline practice the world over. In the 1990s Air Pacific signed a codeshare agreement with Canadian Airlines, allowing it to transport traffic from Toronto on to Auckland, New Zealand. Soon after it struck a codeshare deal with American Airlines. As of 2014 Fiji Airways partners with Qantas, Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Solomon Airlines.

Qantas, which owned less than 20% of Air Pacific at the time, began a ten-year management contract with the airline in 1985 to help reverse the financial losses the company was struggling with. In 1986, Air Pacific posted a profit of nearly $100,000. In 1987 Qantas paid a reported $3.5 million for a 20 percent stake in Air Pacific. Qantas raised its equity from 17.45 percent to 46 percent in 1998.

On 25 January 1995 Air Pacific and the then Royal Tongan Airlines began a joint leasing of aircraft. The concept came complete with the livery of the two airlines painted on each side of the Boeing 737-300 fuselage.

Fiji Airways has a subsidiary airline Fiji Link (formerly Pacific Sun) that offers domestic flights and flights to the nearby islands of Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Fiji Airways is also a partner with the frequent flyer programmes of Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and Qantas.

Rebranding

In May 2012, the airline announced that it would be rebranding and revert to its original name of Fiji Airways, with the rebranding coinciding with the delivery of the A330 aircraft in 2013. Fiji Airways' new brandmark, a "Masi symbol that epitomises Fiji and enhances the new name of Fiji's national carrier", was announced on 17 August 2012. The design was created by local Fijian Masi artist, Makereta Matemosi. The airline's new brand identity and colour scheme were fully revealed on 10 October 2012, in conjunction with Fiji Day.

The rebranding to Fiji Airways officially took place on 27 June 2013. The name change aimed to associate the airline more closely with the nation and to be more visible in search results. In China, the name Air Pacific was often confused with Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific, Philippine airline Cebu Pacific and a Chinese air conditioning company. With the rebranding came a name change for the airline's booking classes. The Pacific Voyager (economy) and Tabua Class (business) of Air Pacific became the Fiji Airways' Economy and Fiji Airways' Business Class. The airline also launched a new [http://www.fijiairways.com/ website] with the rebranding.

Corporate affairs

Ownership and structure

Fiji Airways is part of the Air Pacific Group (which includes the national airline, its wholly owned subsidiary Fiji Link, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island). The Air Pacific Group itself is owned by the Fijian government (51%), the Australian flag-carrier Qantas (46.32%), and Air New Zealand and the governments of Kiribati, Tonga, Nauru and Samoa each hold minor stakes.

Business trends

The airline was largely profitable from 1995 to 2004, but suffered back-to-back record losses of FJ$5.2 million for fiscal year 2008/2009 and FJ$65.3 million for 2009/2010.  In early 2010 a new MD/CEO, Dave Pflieger, was recruited to turn the airline around and restore it to profitability. Pflieger returned to the United States at the end of his contract with the airline in the third quarter of 2013. Stefan Pichler was selected as the airline's new MD/CEO and assumed his role in September 2013.

The key trends for Fiji Airways, and the overall Group (including Fiji Link operations), are shown below (as at year ending 31 March until March 2013; year ending 31 December thereafter):

Destinations 

Fiji Airways has 17 direct-flight destinations in the Pacific Ocean region.

Codeshare agreements

Fiji Airways has the following codeshare agreements:

*Air New Zealand  
*Alaska Airlines 
*American Airlines 
*Cathay Pacific
*Etihad Airways
*Qantas  
*Solomon Airlines

Fleet

Current Fleet

As of December 2015 the Fiji Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Historical fleet 

Former aircraft include examples of the Boeing 777 (on wet lease), Boeing 767, Boeing 747,  de Havilland Dragon Rapide, de Havilland Heron, Douglas DC-3, BAC One-Eleven, Hawker Siddeley HS 748 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Known details include:

Our History | Fiji Airways
Procurement
Our History - Six Decades of Flying to Fiji
On 1st September 1951, a 7-seater De Havilland Dragon Rapide took off from the Fiji’s Nausori Airport to Drasa Airport near Lautoka, on the west coast of the main island. This first commercial flight saw the birth of what today is a truly international, Fijian airline. Together with its domestic/regional subsidiary of Pacific Sun, Fiji Airways flies over 400 flights a week to almost 15 cities in 10 countries around the world.
Taking on various challenges that no airline in the global airline industry is immune from, Fiji Airways has passed various tests with flying colours, more than ably fulfilling its dual roles of flying Fiji and contributing significantly to its economy.
Harold George Gatty
Harold George Gatty was born to British parents in Campelltown in Tasmania on 5 January 1903 and came to settle in Fiji after World War II. He was no stranger to the island nation, as he was based in Auckland before the war as Australasia’s representative of Pan American World Airways. He joined the US Army Air Force during the war, serving first in Java before relocating to Brisbane at General Douglas McArthur’s headquarters and New Guinea after that. He returned to his Pan American job in Auckland at the end of the war and moved to settle in Fiji a few years later. Here he bought an island in Fiji’s eastern island group called Katafaga and turned it into a coconut estate. Before his Pan American job, Gatty had made his name in air navigation in the United States. Using his good sea navigation skills acquired as a cadet midshipman trainee at the Australian Naval College, Gatty invented a navigation system for pilots.
In conjunction with the so called ‘Weems Curves’,Gatty devised his revolutionary ground speed and drift indicator. This allowed for navigation by dead reckoning and did away with the need to take shots from the sun or stars, and it was the forerunner of the automatic pilot, now standard equipment on virtually all commercial and military aircraft.
Gatty got to use his own invention that shot him to international fame when Canadian pilot Lieutenant Harold Bromley invited him to be his navigator in his attempt to fly across the Pacific from Honshu, Japan, to Tacoma in Washington State, USA in September 1930. Fuel tank problem forced the plane back to Honshu after 1,900km of flying, and it is said that despite heavy fogs, Gatty navigated the plane by dead reckoning back to their starting point.
Again he followed this up in 1931 when Wiley Post, a native American oil rigger and stuntman flew around the world in eight days. Gatty was his navigator and that feat earned the two aviators a ticker-tape welcome in New York City. As a British citizen, the US Congress awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross. It was said that despite the accolades, Gatty declined the offer to become an American citizen. His appointment not long thereafter as Pan American World Airways representative based in Auckland brought him to the Pacific, and to Fiji.
Gatty submitted a proposal to Fiji’s then Colonial Government to operate the country’s domestic airline and registered it as Katafaga Estates. The first commercial flight was one September 1st, 1951. While Gatty died on August 30th1958, his bold and visionary initiative had taken off to greater heights, and today has etched its place in Fiji’s aviation history.
 
The Past
During the eventful 60-years, Air Pacific was also about an attempt at regionalism that almost succeeded. By the early 1970s, up to seven island governments of the Pacific, some of them still under British colonial rule then, held shares in Air Pacific. This was in addition to shares held by QANTAS, New Zealand’s TEAL and the British Overseas Airways Corporation, forerunners of Air New Zealand and British Airways respectively. But the regional airline idea fizzled as other Government’s bailed out, leaving Fiji as the majority shareholders in the airline.
For a small airline, Fiji Airways has always been punching way above its weight. Early in the 1980s, it pioneered the code-share concept with Qantas. Today, code-sharing is an accepted airline practice the world over. 25 January 1995 was another watershed date for Fiji’s airline when it launched what was believed to be a trail blazing concept of joint leasing of aircraft with the then Royal Tongan Airline. The concept came complete with the livery of the two airlines painted on each half of the Boeing 737-300 fuselage.
Giving thanks where it’s due
There’s general consensus that a long list of men and women helped Fiji’s international airline get to where it is today. From the pioneers and visionaries brave enough to operate an airline out of the middle of the Pacific during its early years to the hundreds of dedicated and committed Fijians working hard to make it the world’s friendliest airline; words cannot do justice to describe the gratitude of the company.
Several years ago, long serving former chairman of the airline, retired business executive Gerald Barrack paid tribute to Gatty’s vision and the pioneering spirit of men and women like him “from the days when pilots flew Dragon Rapides and Drovers by the seat of their pants.” Days like the one where passengers boarded the Rapides plane and realized that there was no pilot, so a man wearing a bright bula (floral) shirt volunteered to fly the machine. Little did they realize that the man with the bright shirt was actually Fred Ladd, Gatty’s first Chief Pilot, playing his usual practical jokes!
Invited for his observations as "Air Pacific" celebrated its 60th anniversary, past CEO John Campbell said the men and women who built the airline are a source of great pride. “It is not easy to operate a reliable airline with a wide spread network from a small country in the middle of the Pacific. There are logistical, training, spare parts inventory and skill retention and development issues that an airline based in a major market does not face. That the airline has been able to overcome these barriers is a credit to its people and a testament to their commitment and frequent personal sacrifice.
“Fiji citizens can take pride in the overall success of their airline, which truly is the critical link between Fiji and the world and has been and hopefully will continue to be fully committed to serving Fiji's aviation needs. I believe this is what was hoped for by Harold Gatty when establishing the airline.”
As it celebrates its 60th birthday, the Managing Director & CEO at the time, Dave Pflieger, joined his predecessor in praising Harold Gatty’s vision and the people of Fiji for making Air Pacific a world-class international airline.
“Air Pacific’s greatest asset is its people – from our maintenance and ground crews, to the pilots and flight attendants, to our schedulers and administrative staff,” Mr. Pflieger told Fiji Islands magazine. "The many changes and the improvements they are making now will serve Fiji and Fijians well for another 60 years. They are rising to the challenge of new competition and an ever changing world, and creating a strong legacy. It is an honour to work with everyone here."
The Present
For an airline that was started by an acclaimed air navigator, inventor, airline manager, plantation baron and legislator, Fiji Airways has grown into Fiji’s proud flag carrier.  From flying De Havilland Dragon Rapide in those days to the new Airbus 330-200 jets of today, the airline has truly come of age. It boasts a strong position within the region, and is often ranked among the region’s top carriers.
In May 2012, the airline announced that it would reintroduce the name Fiji Airways to reinforce its role as the proud national airline of Fiji. Offering its customers brand new Airbus A330-200 aircraft and warm friendly Fijian service, Fiji Airways connects the islands of Fiji to the world and proudly welcomes visitors to its home.
As our airline proudly returned to its roots as Fiji Airways, we embarked on a new and exciting chapter of our story.
Related Information

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Cheap Tickets to Fiji
These prices were available within the past 7 days. Prices quoted are per person, round trip, for the period specified. Prices and availability are subject to change. Additional terms apply.
" SIN Singapore to NAN Nadi $982.20 "
SINSingapore
Sat, Mar 04 - Fri, Mar 17
$982.20
" SFO San Francisco to NAN Nadi $1,114.86 "
SFOSan Francisco
Sun, May 14 - Wed, May 31
$1,114.86
" LAX Los Angeles to NAN Nadi $1,142.86 "
LAXLos Angeles
Fri, Jun 09 - Sun, Jun 18
$1,142.86
" BOS Boston to NAN Nadi $1,343.36 "
BOSBoston
Mon, May 15 - Mon, May 22
$1,343.36
" EWR Newark to NAN Nadi $1,396.36 "
EWRNewark
Wed, Mar 15 - Sun, Mar 19
$1,396.36
" JFK New York to NAN Nadi $1,420.96 "
JFKNew York
Tue, Feb 28 - Thu, Mar 09
$1,420.96
" ORD Chicago to NAN Nadi $1,486.36 "
ORDChicago
Thu, Jul 27 - Tue, Aug 01
$1,486.36
" MSP Minneapolis to NAN Nadi $1,601.36 "
MSPMinneapolis
Mon, Mar 13 - Sun, Mar 19
$1,601.36
" PHL Philadelphia to NAN Nadi $1,671.36 "
PHLPhiladelphia
Tue, Jun 13 - Wed, Jun 21
$1,671.36
" SLC Salt Lake City to NAN Nadi $2,065.76 "
SLCSalt Lake City
Thu, Mar 16 - Tue, Mar 21
$2,065.76
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