Aviation Authority Shuts Down Fiji’s Sunflower Aviation

By Andrew Curran.

Fiji’s Sunflower Aviation has warned it may be forced to liquidate after the country’s Civil Aviation Authority declined to renew its aircraft maintenance organisation certificate late last week.

Sunflower Aviation owner and director Tim Joyce told the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation that he received an email from the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji on November 21, telling him the bad news.

The charter business and training school suspended its operations on the same day.

“If this cannot be resolved, we will have no choice but to liquidate,” Joyce said.

He says his company and the CAAF have disagreed over who can conduct the daily inspections of its training aircraft.

The CAAF had wanted engineers to perform the inspections rather than pilots. Joyce went on to hire two engineers with the appropriate licenses. However, during a recent audit, the CAAF raised technical concerns over an internal approval.

Joyce says the CAAF then went into radio silence mode, refusing to answer emails or phone calls for a week before telling him the audit's outcome late on Friday evening.

The charter arm of Fiji’s Sunflower Aviation operates a single Gipps Aero GA8 Airvan, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, and a Piper Chieftan PA31. The company is owned by the Joyce Aviation Group, which Tim Joyce co-owns with his wife.

Joyce Aviation also has other subsidiary companies, including Heli Tours Fiji (which operates least two Robinson R44 Raven helicopters and an Airbus AS355), and Pacific Flying School, which trains pilots using five Cessna 172s and a Beechcraft BE-76.

“Over a hundred students are now shut down,” said Joyce.

Fiji Government confirms Sunflower Aviation's shut-down

In a November 23 statement, the Fijian Government acknowledged the certificate’s non-renewal will have flow-on effects for maintenance activities, training programmes, and associated operations.

“These impacts are recognised,” the statement reads. “However, no operational or commercial consideration can override the requirement to meet safety standards set out in Fiji’s aviation laws.”

The government says that CAAF had identified significant and recurring safety non-compliances during a comprehensive regulatory assessment. However, the statement did not detail what they were.

“CAAF has confirmed that it remains open to receiving a comprehensive, verifiable corrective action plan from the organisation concerned,” the statement continues.
 
“Any future consideration of a licence will depend entirely on whether all identified deficiencies are fully resolved, independently validated, and demonstrated to comply with the regulatory framework.”

“This decision is firmly grounded in the interests of public safety, and we will proceed on that basis.”

Sunflower Aviation, which the Joyce Group has owned since 2014, says it maintains the highest safety and service standards.

Photo: Sunflower Aviation.