The management of Fiji's international carrier, Air Pacific said it made every effort to generate improved revenue and remove costs as the airline company announced huge losses late yesterday for 2008 and 2009, and greater losses expected for the current financial year.

The Air Pacific group comprising Richmond Limited, joint of Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, Fiji Airlines Limited, trading as Pacific Sun and Air Pacific Limited, experienced a loss before tax of $14.3 million versus a profit of $38.15 million for the years 2007 and 2008.

This is a negative swing of $52.45 million.

Air Pacific incurred a pre-tax loss of $12.24 million for 2008 and 2009, versus a profit of 41.09 million the preceding year, a swing of $53.3 million.

The airline company's revenue increased by $80 million which is an improvement of 15 percent but expenditure rose by $110 million, an increase of 21 percent.

Despite the huge losses, it had been revealed that for the first time the group carried more than one million passengers compared to just over 901,000 passengers in the last financial year.

Air Pacific Managing Director John Campbell said high fuel prices and Fiji's unique circumstances meant that revenue could not be generated sufficiently or costs removed rapidly enough, to eliminate the loss.

Campbell said the results for 2009 and 2010, continues to be unsatisfactory with the ongoing challenge of fuel costs, the global economic crisis and increased competition all impacting business.

The Air Pacific Managing Director said financial year results to date, have been significantly worse than for the same period the preceding year, and the 2009 and 2010 year end loss for Air Pacific, will be substantially greater than the 12.2 million loss for 2008 and 2009.

The Air Pacific Chairman Nalin Patel said the most significant cost issue was fuel which increased by $126.49 million.

Additional costs arose from the major overhaul and cabin refreshment undertaken on the Boeing747 fleet in early 2009, which required the lease of a Boeing747 aircraft and crew for four months, to maintain schedule integrity for Fiji's tourism market.

The strong US dollar also made a cost impact for Air Pacific.

While announcing the huge losses, Air Pacific also highlighted that the impact of the global financial crisis has devastated airlines worldwide.

The International Air Transport Association has reported that globally airlines lost 5 billion US dollars last year.

The Association forecasts that airline losses will exceed 11 billion US dollars in the year 2009.

And as we report on the huge losses of Air Pacific for, we can also confirm that the airline war is expected to heat up in the next few months in Fiji.

It has been confirmed that International Air Services Commission has granted Jetstar and V Australia capacity on the Fiji route.

Tourism Fiji Chairman Patrick Wong has welcomed the open sky policy by government and said it will bring long term benefits for Fiji.

According to the Travel Weekly website, Qantas group has been awarded 852 seats of capacity per week which must be used no later than April next year, while V Australia has been awarded 907 seats capacity per week, but the carrier must launch services by December 31st this year.

Wong said low cost carriers have greater flexibility when it comes to operational costs, pricing, planning with the encouragement of airline carriers venturing, flying out of non mainstream ports, as well as opening up better connectivity and additional new regions for Fiji.