{"id":957244,"date":"2023-01-14T06:50:22","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T06:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=82892"},"modified":"2023-01-14T06:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T06:50:22","slug":"fiji-bully-of-the-region-under-former-government-claims-airlines-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/14\/fiji-bully-of-the-region-under-former-government-claims-airlines-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiji \u2018bully of the region\u2019 under former government, claims airlines chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Repeka Nasiko in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fiji was regarded a bully, flexing its muscle as a selfish and arrogant player in regional forums, claims Association of South Pacific Airlines (ASPA) president George Faktaufon.<\/p>\n<p>He said he hoped Fiji would rejoin the regional aviation community with the election of the new coalition government.<\/p>\n<p>Faktaufon said Fiji &#8212; through its national airline Fiji Airways &#8212; had a lot to offer to the development of the region\u2019s aviation sector.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Pacific+aviation\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Other Pacific aviation reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAs one who worked for the Pacific Island region for most of my working life, it saddened me to watch Fiji slowly but surely lose its status as a credible leader in the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApart from climate change, which Fiji only joined the bandwagon years after countries like Kiribati and Marshall Islands and their leaders, [former presidents Anote] Tong and [David] Kabaua, had been in the forefront in every international forum, including COP and other forums, Fiji has been seen as a bully, flexing its muscles and often regarded as a selfish and arrogant player in regional forums,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2022, I attended three regional high level ministerial meetings &#8212; Forum Aviation Ministerial Meeting, virtually, Forum Leaders\/Private Sectors Dialogue in Suva and then the Forum Economic Ministers\/Private Sector Dialogue in Vanuatu,\u201d Faktaufon said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn all these meetings, Fiji came out as the stumbling block to enhancing regional air connectivity with its stringent air services agreements with other PICs [Pacific Island Countries], that were not only outdated but favoured Fiji and its national airline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFiji Airways has a lot to offer to other PICs and their national airlines, but it has to be in a mutual partnership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFiji Airways has the resources both in expertise and also equipment that it could use to benefit other PICs as well as itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is called regional collaboration and co-operation where there are winners and no losers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had done it before, with a joint lease of a B737 between Fiji Airways and Royal Tongan,\u201d Faktaufon said.<\/p>\n<p><i><span class=\"caption\"><em>Repeka Nasiko is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><br \/>\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/01\/14\/fiji-bully-of-the-region-under-former-government-claims-airlines-chief\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Repeka Nasiko in Suva Fiji was regarded a bully, flexing its muscle as a selfish and arrogant player in regional forums, claims Association of South Pacific Airlines (ASPA) president George Faktaufon. He said he hoped Fiji would rejoin the regional aviation community with the election of the new coalition government. Faktaufon said Fiji \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56161,56164,1719,923,3326,108,478,363,1150,5,495,56178,365,388,56181,12,56186,1743,888],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":957245,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957244\/revisions\/957245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}