Better off without Dallas, says Fiji Airways CEO

By Andrew Curran.

The CEO of Fiji Airways says there was very little downside to cancelling flights to Dallas Fort Worth, with the bulk of passengers who used the airport to connect to or from Nadi now doing so at Los Angeles or San Francisco instead.

Fiji Airways is ending its thrice-weekly Nadi (NAN) – Dallas (DFW) flights on September 7, less than two years after starting the route.

Speaking at the CAPA Asia Pacific Airline Leaders Summit in Adelaide yesterday, July 29, CEO Paul Scurrah said load factors on the city pair were lower than hoped for and the additional route was stretching the airline's resources.

"We were probably over-extended, capacity-wise," said Scurrah. "It had the effect of spreading our resources a bit too thin, so we saw San Francisco and Los Angeles being a bit affected by it as well."

In addition to Dallas Fort Worth, Fiji Airways flies to San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX) and Vancouver (YVR) on the North American west coast, which Scurrah describes as the airline's biggest growth market.

He says only 20% of passenger traffic on the Dallas – Nadi route originated within the Dallas catchment area. The remaining 80% were connecting to or from Fiji Airways flights at the airport, which is American Airlines' home base.

American and Fiji Airways are both members of the oneworld alliance, with the US carrier instrumental in Fiji Airways' recent upgrade to full membership.

But Scurrah says that connecting traffic can just as easily travel through San Francisco or Los Angeles. Fiji Airways flies to Los Angeles daily and San Francisco three to four times per week.

"Since we made the call (to end the Dallas flights), we take the entire Dallas cost base out of our system," he said. "Our (North American) bookings are slightly below where they were last year, but considering the capacity we send into Dallas, that's a fantastic result."

Speaking more broadly about the US market, Scurrah said leisure passenger demand to the US had dropped. That includes demand from markets in the South West Pacific and markets on the other side of North America. However, he said business travel to the US was holding up, while outbound passenger traffic from the US towards Fiji (and beyond) was "holding up really well".

Scurrah wants to work existing fleet harder before ordering new aircraft

On fleet, Scurrah said he wanted his network planners to work the existing fleet harder before placing new aircraft orders, but acknowledged the long wait times for new aircraft.

"We're looking at (an order) two to four years down the track," he said.

Fiji Airways operates 14 aircraft across its international network, including three A330-200s, one A330-300, four A350-900s, one B737-800 and five B737-8s. An A330 cabin refurbishment programme is underway to bring the aircraft up to the standards of the newer A350s.

In the shorter term, Scurrah said, "We want to grow our ASKs without necessarily any new aircraft."

Longer term, Scurrah said delivery times were a factor in fleet planning.

"It's like a 2033, 2034 delivery if you order aircraft today," he said. "If you don't order aircraft today and you wait a year, it might be another three years. What we have to look at is, and we're talking to lessors about it, is who's got the (delivery) slots that are already in the system that we might be able to jump on and benefit from."

Photo: Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com