Q&A with Fiji Airways CEO Paul Scurrah
Business Advantage Fiji sat down with Paul Scurrah, CEO of Fiji Airways, at the beginning of May 2026 to discuss the impact of the Middle East conflict, the American Airlines partnership, its Oneworld membership, as well as plans for growth.
Q
You're six months into the role. What are your first impressions?
A
In doing my research before I accepted the job, the thing that struck me was how happy the Fijian people were. I looked into it a little bit more deeply and it’s not a show, it’s actually genuine happiness. That is something we should be incredibly proud of: airlines love to have a point of difference and we want to make sure that our people are the biggest difference between us and our competition.
Q
Obviously, the Middle East conflict is not something you were not expecting at the beginning of the year. How is the airline responding to that challenge?
A
Of course, we’d prefer not to be in such an expensive fuel environment and it’s certainly hurting us as an airline. Thankfully, we’re doing okay on the revenue line because we’re also seen as a safe, family-friendly and relatively isolated from trouble destination.
So, for the reasons I mentioned, we’re not as badly affected as other airlines because, touch wood, at the moment demand is healthy and strong. We’re seeing really good forward booking numbers from our key markets. But there are certain services that we just could not sustain with the current fuel cost environment, so we’ve made some minor tweaks to our schedule.
We’ve taken the approach to date not to put a fuel surcharge on. But we have found it necessary to push our base prices up to recover.
Q
When we talked to your predecessor last year, your new strategic partnership with American Airlines was a major focus. How is that relationship developing?
A
The relationship with American Airlines and, in fact, all of our Oneworld partners is proving really strategically important to us. In terms of the access to 900 destinations we now have across 14 other partners, it has allowed us to effectively increase our network massively without buying a new plane.
With American, they’ve been a great partner in the US. Their loyalty relationship with us is very important as well. They’re a very important redemption partner and they’re promoting us extensively throughout the US.
We also have a great relationship with Qantas. They’re an important partner because Australia is our biggest source market.
What’s great for our customers is that there’s a seamless nature to our service offering which gives them confidence when they book with us.
Q
Fiji Airways has developed a significant business in transit passengers in recent years. How do you see that market developing?
A
Our transit business has really been a catalyst for us getting global recognition for how good our product is. It has enabled us to fly someone on Fiji Airways who was not initially thinking about Fiji as a holiday destination – or even as Fiji Airways as a way to get to there – and put our brand at the front of their mind for when they are looking for a holiday. So, the transit product has served us incredibly well and is going to be a big part of our future.
Q
You already have a young fleet, certainly by Pacific standards. What is your growth strategy for the next few years?
A
We’ve got great Boeing 737 MAXs, Airbus A350s and A330s, with a great onboard product. We see room to grow inside the fleet profile we’ve got at the moment. We think it’ll serve us well for the next three-to-five years.
We certainly can’t neglect our core markets of Australia and New Zealand. They are so close and they have such a close bond with Fiji.
But I think there’s a lot of growth to come out of North America and Asia. We’re seeing really strong support for our Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo flights and we also see China as an important future market. Of course, India also has a close relationship with Fiji, for obvious reasons.
At the same time, our codeshare alliances and our Oneworld Alliance partnership opens up the whole world and we’re seeing really healthy growth out of Europe as well, especially the United Kingdom.
This article appears in the 2026/27 edition of Business Advantage Fiji published in August 2026. Read the full edition here.
