Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says Fiji Airports (FA) has been continuously making net profit after tax, with the company also successfully funding most of its capital projects internally.
In his contribution to the Debate on the Review Report of the Fiji Airports Annual Report 2020 in Parliament yesterday, Rabuka said the pandemic adversely impacted the aviation industry worldwide, and FA was no exception as international and domestic passenger movements declined significantly as a result of restrictions put in place, including border closures, due to the pandemic.
“In 2020, FA saw a substantial decline in both international and domestic passenger movements. International passenger movement decreased from 900 thousand in 2019 to 500 thousand in 2020.”
The Prime Minister said this led to Fiji Airport’s net-profit after tax decreasing from $65.2M in 2019 to $6.7M in2020 and a loss of $4.3M in 2021.
Rabuka said this did not deter the Company’s capital projects on infrastructure plans for Nadi and other outer island airports, in the upgrading of its air navigation systems.
He said since the reopening of the borders, Fiji Airports has seen an increase in airport traffic and expects international passenger movement to be 1.6 million in 2022 and recorded a profit of over $36M.
Fiji Airports is a fully Government owned commercial company that operates both the Nadi and Nausori International Airport, together with 13 other domestic outer island airports and also provides Air Traffic Management services in the Nadi Flight Information Region-including the airspaces in Fiji, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kiribati and Vanuatu, covering a 6 million square kilometre area.
