Attorney General and Trade and Industry Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has called a meeting tomorrow of all stakeholders affected by the air cargo transport issue.

Sayed-Khaiyum said the goal of the meeting will be to reconcile concerns expressed by the industry regarding changes to Air Pacific’s flight schedule.

He said the air cargo transport matter is not an insurmountable issue and will only be a matter of all parties sitting to discuss a reasonable solution.

Sayed-Khaiyum said it is unfortunate that a resolution was first sought in the media, when direct talks could easily have avoided these concerns.

Meanwhile Fiji’s international carrier, Air Pacific said when the airline company’s new schedule takes effect in January 2012, it will still have three B747 flights per week to Sydney which means it will still have a weekly freight capacity of up to 60 tonnes.

Air Pacific said this should be sufficient to carry current exports since the airline only carries a total of 46 tonnes of agriculture air freight cargo right now.

It said current shipments of 12 to 16 tonnes of cargo sent to Brisbane each week will be affected by the new fleet and schedule but this cargo could potentially be sent to Brisbane via Sydney as well.


Story by: Vijay Narayan