Air Pacific has chartered a Convair from Air Chatham of Tonga for an undisclosed period of time, because the two aircraft purchased by their expert expatriate management from USA  have had to be grounded as a result of undisclosed deficiencies, resulting in increased road transportation between Labasa and Savusavu since Pacific Sun are not currently flying to Savusavu.

On Friday December 9^th Air Pacifics Hong Kong flight and Melbourne flights were cancelled, plus there were changes of aircraft for the Sydney flights causing more delays and disruptions.

Passengers scheduled to travel on FJ810 from Nadi to Los Angeles on Sunday, December 11, will now travel on Monday, December 12. “This is due to the delayed arrival of a Boeing 747-400 aircraft from routine ‘C’ check in Singapore,” said an airline statement. (This aircraft would qualify for an FNPF pension based on its age )

Air Pacific is also facing further problems as a result of mechanical problems on its only Boeing 767-300ER aircraft in Hong Kong, which is expected to delay a number of flights.

A statement by Air Pacific yesterday advised customers that because of the delayed departure of its B767 from Hong Kong to Nadi because of maintenance issues with a cargo door, several flights to New Zealand and Australia have been cancelled, rescheduled, or passengers re-accommodated on other airlines. “Flight 411 to Auckland was cancelled (yesterday) and those passengers flew to Auckland at midnight last night on a chartered Air New Zealand 777-300 aircraft. The chartered flight departed Auckland at 7:45pm yesterday evening, arrived at 10:45pm in Nadi and returned Auckland at midnight. Arriving Auckland at 04.00; such a nice time to start the day.

All of this spells Chaos for Christmas

Why should we the Greybeards and younger members be concerned?, Well Air Pacific was recently given $200,000,000 of our money.. Question is, why do they need the money now?, is it to secure the purchase of aircraft that Airbus are very anxious to sell, or is it to prop up the day to day expenditure of the airline?.

Fast talking high flying CEO Dave Pflieger has been in charge for well over a year together with a management team from the USA to support him, yet things seem to be going from bad to worse.

The latest song from the Airport Serenaders should be “Where have all the aircraft engineers gone”, or can we look forward to another dubious duet from the AG and his Golden High Flying Boy Dave..

It is little wonder that the Prime Ministers airline of choice is Korean Air