Air Pacific to start flights from Mumbai

Air Pacific will consider direct flights from Mumbai if visitor numbers grow.The Attorney General and Minister for Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum said Fiji has started focusing on the India and China markets to diversify its risks from the two main markets of Australia and New Zealand.Sayed-Khaiyum said with the Hong Kong Nadi route operating thrice a week, connectivity has improved and this will generate traffic from India to Fiji.Air Pacific's regional general manager Watson Seeto said they place a lot of emphasis on their crew as a lot of promotion can be done however it is the crew who interacts with the guest and leaves an impression.According to Seeto, Air Pacific has not even scratched the surface of the India market.

He said they are also in talks with a couple of airlines in India for code share which will depend on the numbers that are generated.Seeto said the Air Pacific has six aircrafts only and as India is an emerging market so operating directly into India will depend on how the feed to Fiji is.He said if numbers grow, they can consider direct operations.He also said that Air Pacific is expecting an addition of a Dreamliner aircraft to its fleet in two years.The main target markets that Tourism Fiji is looking at from India are honeymooners, families, Free Independant Travelers and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions.Meanwhile, Fiji received 620,000 visitors in 2010 compared to 542,000 arrivals in 2009.The total number of Indian arrivals during the period January to October last year was 2,409, a 30% growth from the same period in 2009.