Today, Parliament will once again roll out the red carpet for Fiji Airways. Under Section 145(1) of the Constitution and Standing Order 131, Minister for Finance Esrom Immanuel will move to guarantee an additional $200 million in borrowings for the national carrier—effective from 1 August 2026 to 30 June 2029.
The terms are eerily familiar: waive the guarantee fee, extend the coverage until full maturity, and ask taxpayers to foot the risk. But before our MPs raise their hands in approval, they owe it to the Fijian people to ask a simple question: What exactly did the last bailout achieve?
A Carbon Copy of 2021—But With a Hotel
Let’s rewind to October 2021. Parliament then—with the now-opposition bench occupying the government seats—was in a similar frenzy, approving increases to government-backed borrowing for an airline crippled by COVID-19. Back then, the local borrowing guarantee was hiked from $191.1 million to $241.1 million. At the time, these changes took the total government guarantee ceiling for Fiji Airways from $455 million to $561.4 million.
The 2021 deal came with the exact same sweeteners: an exemption from guarantee fees and a promise that the guarantees would stick around until the facilities were fully discharged.
Now, five years later, this coalition government—which was the opposition back then—is back with the exact same playbook, asking for another $200 million on top of that already swollen ceiling.
What changed? The pandemic is over. International travel has rebounded spectacularly. Fiji Airways reported record operating revenue of 25 million while simultaneously investing in a $250 million luxury hotel on Denarau.
The ATM Is Running on Empty
Frankly, we are exhausted. We are tired of being treated as the endless ATM of politicians and commercial interests. Just last Friday, we watched over $6 million—by some estimates—go up in smoke on a Commission of Inquiry that produced absolutely nothing. Zero convictions. Zero policy wins. Zero closure. Only a High Court ruling that slapped down the entire process for procedural illegality.
And now, barely a breath later, we are being asked to dig deeper into our already depleted pockets for an airline and a government, that seems to have a bottomless appetite for taxpayer credit.
The message from the people is clear: we have insufficient funds in the bank. Our roads are crumbling. Our hospitals are under-resourced. Our teachers are underpaid. Yet we keep finding millions for inquiries that go nowhere and guarantees for companies that build luxury hotels while crying poverty.
The Inconvenient Question: Where Was the Board?
This brings us to the governance void that no one in power wants to address. The Board of Fiji Airways, has presided over this paradox. It approved a record profit-share for employees—a commendable gesture, but one that seems tone-deaf when the airline is drowning in $678 million of debt. It signed off on the Vatu Talei Resort venture through Richmond Pte Ltd. It greenlit expansion into Dallas-Fort Worth that will now be curtailed from next month.
These are not unavoidable external shocks. These are strategic choices made by a board that seems to treat taxpayer money as a revolving credit line.
When questioned about reviewing these investments, the airline’s response was a deafening silence, citing “confidentiality requirements.” Confidentiality? For a company majority-owned by the Fijian people through the government and the FNPF, that excuse wears thin when you’re asking for another public handout.
The Pattern Is the Problem
The 2021 bailout under the previous government was sold as a temporary lifeline for a pandemic-stricken airline. The 2026 bailout under the coalition government is being sold as a lifeline for fuel costs due to the Gulf crisis. But fuel costs are volatile; they always have been. A competent board plans for volatility. It does not build luxury resorts and then turn to the government with a begging bowl.
If Parliament approves this motion—with the same fee waiver and the same indefinite guarantee terms—it sends a dangerous message: Fiji Airways can do whatever it likes, and we the taxpayers will always pick up the tab.
The Verdict
We are not against Fiji Airways. We understand the strategic importance of a national carrier. But this isn’t a rescue mission. It’s a habit—an expensive, opaque, and deeply troubling one.
If the government insists on guaranteeing this debt, it must impose hard conditions: freeze all non-essential capital investments like the Denarau hotel, table the airline’s audited financials in Parliament, and restructure the board to eliminate conflicts of interest.
Otherwise, today’s debate isn’t about saving a national asset. It’s about writing a blank cheque to an entity that refuses to be accountable. We the Fijian taxpayers deserve far better than a repeat performance of 2021—and far better than being treated as an ATM with no limits, when the reality is our account is already overdrawn.
The Government and the Board of Fiji Airways must understand: we are not a bottomless pit. The ATM has a limit. And we have reached it.
Pasifika Talanoa by a traveled ITaukei Fijian 