Air Pacific is working on alternative means of getting the Flying Fijians team to Samoa after the entire team volunteered to be off-loaded from their Nadi to Apia flight late Saturday night.

Air Pacific CEO, Dave Pfliger said a combination of unexpected runway construction which reduced the length of usable runway and some unusually strong tail winds at departure time meant that Air Pacific had no option other than significantly reducing passenger loads to permit the plane to depart.

Pfliger said Air Pacific is looking at every option possible to make sure the Flying Fijians team gets to Apia in plenty of time for their match on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Flying Fijian Fifteens rugby back-line will have a lot of areas to improve in their next outing in the Pacific Nation Cup against Tonga.

Assistant coach, Alfred Uluinayau said that the younger players in the team like halfback Nikola Matawalu, fly-half Jonetani Ralulu and outside centre Ropate Ratu have shown some improvement in the game against Japan.

Uluinayau added that the Tongan team will be out to try and beat the Fijian after their close 23-24 lost to Samoa yesterday and his players will have to lift their performance.