Special Farewell Ceremony for Team Fiji

Sept. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Hon. Filipe Bole, the Minister for Sports

Mr. Vidhya Lakhan, the President of FASANOC

Members of Team Fiji and Air Pacific

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka

We are honored to welcome you here to our headquarters in Nadi. It is an honor to be named the official airline of Team Fiji and to be able to fly Team Fiji to New Caledonia, to the 2011 Pacific Island Games.

I’d like to thank FASANOC for giving us this opportunity, and I’d like to also acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our own team here at Air Pacific for making these chartered flights to Fiji possible.

As you may know, this year is Air Pacific’s 60th anniversary.  That means we have had a proud tradition of flying and being a part of Fiji for 60 years.

From our humble beginnings in 1951 flying just domestic, we now fly to 15 cities and 10 countries.

Air Pacific aircraft bring in 68% of all visitors who fly to Fiji.

The Company employs over 750 employees, earns revenues of $600 million, and directly contributes 3% of the country’s GDP.

Since Air Pacific is Fiji’s national airline, it is only fitting that we partner with FASANOC to support our national team, Team Fiji.  I understand that our national team will participate in an impressive 27 different sports, representing the sporting diversity of this country. We recognize the importance of supporting Team Fiji, as we at Air Pacific share your values of teamwork, diversity, commitment and patriotism.

At this point, I would also like to note how proud the Air Pacific family is to have three of our own, be a part of Team Fiji at the Pacific Games.

James Lenoa, one of our Logistics Officers and something of a household name in karate circles, is part of Team Fiji.

Stanley Ooms, a Second Officer on our B747 aircraft, will be giving his all in the paddling competition, and Captain Henry Stephen, one of our B747 Captains is a Team Fiji official for shooting.

All of us here at Air Pacific wish you and your colleagues, and Team Fiji the very best.

To all those traveling today to New Caledonia, I hope you have a great trip on the world’s friendliest airline to Noumea in our B737 under command of Captain Harnek Singh, Purser Maraia Tavo, and the rest of our team.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any member of Team Air Pacific for assistance in making your journey a pleasant one!

Mo ni kalougata ka qaqa.
Vinaka Vakalevu.

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Air Pacific, the Fiji island's national airline, has earned an envious reputation as the prime carrier on the Australia-Fiji holiday route, offering typically gracious Fijian service.