FIJI Airways has expressed its commitment to upholding travel agency commission payments, with Manager of Global Sales, Marketing and Digital, Akuila Batiweti, saying the travel trade will continue to play a pivotal part in the carrier’s distribution strategy.
“We’re not cutting commissions,” Batiweti told travelBulletin this week at the 2023 Fiji Tourism Exchange. “We love the trade…we support you, because at a time when we needed you, you were there”.
“So we will not cut commissions,” Batiweti emphasised, saying supporting the trade was Fiji Airways’ “competitive advantage”.
“This is how we compete with the bigger guys – we look after our agents, we look after wholesalers, and we make sure that we’re not cutting,” he explained.
Fiji Airways is enjoying plenty of forward momentum, with direct flights from Canberra to Nadi launching on 21 July, increased capacity on the new Nadi-Vancouver route, and two new Airbus A350s joining the fleet in August and September this year.
The airline also celebrated the return of all the markets it operated pre-pandemic with the launch of services last week to the newly reopened Kiribati, and is on track to not only make a full recovery, but also exceed 2019 levels.
“Our forward bookings on capacity alone – Q1 we flew 113% more than we did in 2019…Q2 we are about 134%, and we will fly close to 150% of what we did in 2019 by Q4 [of 2023],” Batiweti said.
Meanwhile, Fiji Airways is considering the addition of a third flight from Canberra each week, with Batiweti revealing this may become a reality in October.
“Now we’ve got Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, so five cities. We are looking at two other airports…right now that could
be really any city in Australia,” he confirmed.
