Fiji Airways reports record profit

Fiji Airways Group has reported the best half year operating result in the company’s history with a record $17.2 million operating profit.

The results for the first half of 2014 see a massive increase to the corresponding period last year where underlying profit was only $0.5 million.

The Group, legally known as Air Pacific Limited, comprises of Fiji Airways, its subsidiary Fiji Link, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island.

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The amount is the total adjusted operating profit excluding release of aged management accruals and one-off items like the introduction cost of the first A330 in 2013 and the hand landing cost in 2014.

Managing Director and CEO, Stefan Pichler, says they now need to keep the pace in order to pay a profit share to staff for 2014 as well as a dividend to shareholders.

“The key driver of this underlying profitability was the 10% higher load factor across the whole network. We flew 4% more passengers and produced 5% more sectors, but in a much more efficient way. Our company was not in a comparable shape back in 2013 as we didn’t have an agreed strategy in place and suffered from a rather dysfunctional management structure,” Pichler says.

The NZ, US and South Pacific markets performed strongly in this period, whereas Australia and Hong Kong performed weaker than expected due to the Australian dollar and lower than budgeted Hong Kong loads. The domestic network reported a small loss.

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Pichler says the airline will continue their strategy of increasing revenues while controlling costs.

“Our pricing remains competitive in the market and we will continue to make investments in our customer experience across all touch points. This includes the on-board and on-ground experience, our customer service and the training for our team.”