Fiji Airways is under the spotlight again after several questions were raised in Parliament as to why the national airline took a small deposit instead of receiving the full amount before charting one of its planes to Israel, last October.
Responding to the question from Opposition MP Premila Kumar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad said that Fiji Airways has a payment plan with the charterer Pacific Voyager, and whatever is owed to Fiji Airways will be paid in full.
He said Fiji Airways Chief Executive André Viljoen is also on record confirming that.
Prof Prasad stressed that this is a normal business transaction and business decision. This is within Fiji Airways policies and procedures, within their operational feasibility assessment and costs.
The Deputy Prime Minister said this question could have been thrown out of the Business Committee as the matter is currently under investigation but it hasn’t been.
He said if the FijiFirst were still in Government and if the Government side was in Opposition, they would have refused to the question being asked in Parliament.
He confirmed that Fiji Airways Annual Reports and Financial Statements would be presented to Parliament in May.
