Each side is blaming the other for cancellation of a project to launch charter flights between New Zealand and Fiji.
Flight Centre, the New Zealand travel agency chain that was organising the flights, complains that Fiji dragged its feet because it did not want charters competing with its flag carrier Air Pacific.
A spokesman for Fiji's authorities says it only needed two weeks to process the application and that was a reasonable length of time. Flight Centre cancelled the charters when Fiji's cabinet started to review its application and, according to the travel agency, sought information on the impact of charters on other carriers and the type of people they might bring to Fiji.
A week after the cancellation, Fiji approved the charters, but that comes too late. It remains unclear whether it changed its criteria in light of the dispute. The threat of charters forced Air New Zealand and its discount unit, Freedom Air, to drop fares on scheduled flights from New Zealand to Fiji.
Source: Airline Business
