Stefan Pichler.
By RACHNA LAL
Our national airline, Fiji Airways, and its subsidiary, Pacific Sun, continue to soar in terms of on-time performance, notably so since the arrival of its new boss.
Fiji Airways reported an improved on-time performance of 80 per cent in January, compared to 78 per cent for December and 77.5 per cent for November.
Meanwhile, Pacific Sun continued to outperform with another outstanding on-time performance of 94.1 per cent in January, compared to 93.5 per cent in December and 88 per cent in November.
This is the second time Pacific Sun has hit the 94 per cent mark recently.
Fiji Airways managing director and chief executive, Stefan Pichler, said: “Our teams have been quite diligent and kept steadfast focus on operational excellence during the busy month of January.
“As is normal for this time of the year, adverse weather conditions particularly afternoon thunderstorms have had an impact.”
“I do personally apologise to our customers affected by any disruptions to their travel plans.”
Mr Pichler said while they expect these to continue through the end of thunderstorm season for Fiji, 80 per cent on-time performance was a great result for Fiji Airways during this time of the year.
“And I continue to be impressed by Pacific Sun’s results every month,” he said.
“All credit to the team for achieving a 94.1 per cent on-time performance result – it is a performance that any airline in the world would be proud of.”
Definition
On-time performance is a global airline industry benchmark which measures aircraft flight departures as being on time if they depart from the gate within 15 minutes of the airline’s scheduled departure time.