Fiji Airways is boosting capacity to San Francisco in response to demand.
The airline launched nonstop flights between Nadi and San Francisco in June 2016, initially as a twice-weekly seasonal service with Airbus A330 equipment that operated in the months of June, July, August, December 2016 and January 2017.
It will now serve San Francisco all year with two flights a week, increasing to three flights a week during peak periods.
Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said the airline was buoyed by the growing demand from business, leisure and visiting friends and family travellers on its San Francisco flights.
“Our expansion out of SFO represents our position as the premier carrier for Fiji and the South Pacific, as well as being a gateway carrier to Australia and New Zealand,” Viljoen said in a statement.
San Francisco is Fiji Airways’ second destination in North America alongside its year-round daily offering to Los Angeles.
The airline has a codeshare agreement with American Airlines for destinations beyond Los Angeles and San Francisco both in the United States and Europe.
Fiji Airways has also been bulking up its Australian and New Zealand network to support its flights to North America.
The airline is launching nonstop Adelaide-Nadi service with Boeing 737-800s from June, offering South Australians an alternative one-stop option for travel to the United States. It has also added extra flights from Christchurch to its Nadi hub.
While Fiji Airways is majority government owned, Qantas holds 46 per cent of the airline, while Air New Zealand has about two per cent. The governments of Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru also each have a small stake in the airline formerly known as Air Pacific.
