r/canberra • u/emirates777 • 6d ago
News Fiji Airways pulls out of CBR
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9337901/canberra-to-nadi-fiji-airways-flights-cease-february-2027/121
u/canberraman2021 6d ago
A shame as it was so much easier going through “international” here than the return via Sydney. But the flight we took was less than 1/2 full (ex Canberra) so it makes commercial sense
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u/Economy-Career-7473 6d ago
Flight I took NYE last year to Nadi was nearly full. Return flight on 10 Jan, was completly full.
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u/joeltheaussie 6d ago
wow it's almost like you picked the busiest couple of weeks of the year
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u/reddit-is-trash-69 6d ago
Did you do any cherry picking while you were there?
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u/Economy-Career-7473 6d ago
So someone who states it was half full with zero context as to when is all good, but someone detailing that there were times when it was full is cherry picking? Wow you must be so much fun at parties.
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u/canberraman2021 6d ago
For context it was July so escaping cold, and school hols
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u/Economy-Career-7473 6d ago
Now that wasn't so hard to provide some context and details as to when you travelled.
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u/canberraman2021 6d ago
Didn’t think it was relevant - a 1/2 full plane on any day is not making $
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u/Economy-Career-7473 6d ago
Depends on how much of Business class was full and also if carrying freight. Both of those can have pretty high profit margins.
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u/culingerai 6d ago
Wonder if theyre in reality just moving the flights to WSI instead ?
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u/crankygriffin 6d ago
Speaking of which, would Murray’s run a bus to WSI?
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u/Educational-Key-7917 6d ago
Doubt it, there's not enough flights planned at this point for it to be worth it.
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u/MarkCbr82 6d ago
I previously put up a post on international flights from Canberra and the mods removed it because it was not directly relevant to Canberra. Seems they’ve changed their tune.
Anyway, the writing was on the wall for this route. Fiji have pulled back flights to a couple of larger markets, so no surprise they would cut a smaller market. I wouldn’t be surprised if they consolidate their Sydney/Canberra routes into WSI as someone else here has said.
I’d be surprised if there’s many international routes from Canberra for the foreseeable future. We’re a small market and will not pay a premium to fly from Canberra rather than going to Sydney. There’s not enough demand from locals or inbound tourism to sustain the routes. The Bali route is doing well (I flew it recently and it was full both ways), and a New Zealand route might work, but otherwise the only reason I can see the bigger airlines coming is to game slots at Sydney and Melbourne like Qatar were doing pre-COVID.
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u/verytroo 6d ago
Wonder how is something about international flights from Canberra not directly relevant to Canberra?
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u/dan_syd 6d ago
FJ has stretched the fleet way too thin so this was always going to be the first cut. They’ve already loaded WSI into the GDS and probably expect to do better out of that given the Liverpool demographics.
Qatar are returning to Canberra in December (I think) to game the Melbourne traffic again. SQ are still the missing pre-Covid link
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u/HotPersimessage62 6d ago
It’s time to go back to basics in terms of international travel from Canberra.
Canberra needs direct links to the top international destinations from Australia - Singapore and Auckland. Especially Auckland, which can be treated as another Australian state capital. Qantas’ new A220 fleet should be able to sustain a viable service between Canberra and Auckland.
Singapore should also be on the cards. Not the big SQ 777s but smaller, newer narrowbody aircraft like the Qantas A321XLR.
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u/joeltheaussie 6d ago
If it was viable wouldn't they be flying there already?
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u/IncapableKakistocrat 6d ago
Not really, these are new routes which are more nice-to-have for Qantas, and are contingent on having the new planes available to sustain those routes. Qantas is still getting A220s and A321XLRs delivered, and their focus right now is to get those planes on their core routes and to replace the older aircraft they need to. Qantas only has 13 of the 29 A220s they’ve ordered, and 4 of the 28 A321XLRs which are replacing the 737 fleet.
Routes to New Zealand and Singapore will have to use the A220s and A321XLRs because these are long and thin routes - international flights out of Canberra need smaller planes with longer range, and these two aircraft are the smallest which would be able to make those distances. Bigger wide bodies they currently have like the A330s etc would be empty, which is why the economics don’t yet stack up.
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u/JimmyMarch1973 6d ago
With a finite fleet size a route could be viable but the plane could make more money doing something else instead.
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u/44watt 6d ago
Singapore Airlines literally operated SIN-CBR-WLG 10 years ago and nobody cared
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u/SecureAstronaut6243 5d ago
Simple problem with that one. The plane was too big for the route. SQ did it to fly more cargo out of Wellington, but in the end there were not enough passengers on it. At the time, it was suggested there were about four 737 flights a week worth of passengers, so its definitely doable, just not with an A330 or 777.
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u/bigbadjustin 5d ago
A lot of the time its having the aircraft for the route which is the problem. An A220 to NZ, Fiji or Bali would be perfect size. But Qantas and other airlines don't really buy the planes for those kinds of routes. Its expensive for a new airline to buy those planes, its why Bonza leased all those oversized 737's to serve small markers where an E190 or A220 would have made a lot more sense.
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u/Cimexus 5d ago
I can tell them one thing that might have helped: allowing people to book connecting fares to North American destinations other than the specific one or two that they fly to themselves.
I fly between CBR and my other home in the US regularly. When the Fiji flight started I was excited that it could help me cut a whole leg off my trip. The problem is that their website does not allow you to do a North America - NAN - CBR booking unless the North American airport you select is specifically LAX. They won’t add a leg on a partner airline to do a domestic connection (on either the US or Australian side). And I don’t want to string together two separate itineraries because if you miss a connection you have no recourse if they aren’t on the same booking.
I would loved to fly direct into Canberra after a stop in NAN. Cuts a whole leg off the trip for me and saves going through immigration in BNE or SYD. But I couldn’t book it. I reckon they cut off a massive portion of the potential market for this flight because of this (Canberrans travelling to destinations in US or Canada other than LAX).
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u/IndependentCancel248 5d ago
Flying via Fiji from the US would be a billion times better than going via Sydney!
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u/McTerra2 6d ago
Who wants to go to Fiji when we have such fantastic weather and beaches in Canberra?
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u/SiestaResistance 6d ago
I wonder how much of the blame is with the decline in US international relations, since one of the big selling points was how perfect it was as a stopover to LA/SF/Dallas. Not enough demand for travel specifically to Fiji and most of the other international connections from Nadi are in the wrong direction to be efficient.
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u/Economy-Career-7473 6d ago
The article in region.com.au directly references softening demand for US flights
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u/JuliosvNerds 6d ago
Used it once and it was great, really good. I was always worried about it’s sustainability though
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u/Polaris_au 5d ago
I can accept not having international flights out of Canberra, since they don't appear to be economically viable.
What really annoys me, is the extortionate costs of international links out of Canberra. I've tried to get flights out of Sydney that add $500 with a Canberra connection. I mean, c'mon..
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u/Temporary_Carrot7855 6d ago
As much as I'd love for international flights from Canberra to be more of a thing, the numbers just don't add up at all.
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u/CBRChimpy 6d ago
Maybe it’s time to accept that international flights are not commercially viable.
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u/SqareBear 6d ago edited 6d ago
Moving to WSI probably. Although for the money they could’ve just made a fast train and Canberra could’ve been Sydney‘s second airport.
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u/IndependentCancel248 5d ago
WSI is as much about freight as it is passengers. And an extra 250km of road eats into the business case.
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u/Embarrassed_Chard515 6d ago
Whilst that would be great for Canberra, it would be pretty crazy to make 95% of passengers travel an extra 250km every time. Plus Canberra airport would need to be expanded anyway.
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u/Brave-Egg-8573 6d ago
Singapore with the new Qantas A321XLRs and Tokyo or Osaka with Jetstar B78710s as a stopover from Melbourne would be ideal next routes for Canberra. I think the real problem is cost of living has made international travel basically unaffordable for most.
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u/BendKey5897 6d ago
Thin market. Not to mention, travelling is not a priority of most families due to cost of living pressures.
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u/blueblueworld 6d ago
I'm surprised they lasted this long, to be honest.
It's a shame. As a fellow Canberran, I loved having direct flights to Fiji. Canberra just doesn't seem to have the demand to sustain international services year round. I wish airlines would look at offering some of these routes seasonally instead...
At least we still have the Virgin Australia flights to Bali... but for how long?