Fiji Airways fires up non-stop flights to Vancouver

Australians jetting over to Canada can now break up the trans-Pacific hop with a balmy tropical escape as Fiji Airways’ long-awaited Nadi to Vancouver link – its third non-stop connection to North America – takes to the skies. 

Now flying twice-weekly every Monday and Friday, FJ880 departs Nadi at 10:15pm, arriving into Vancouver at 1:20pm the same day. On the return, FJ881 also sees wheels up every Monday and Friday at 9:40pm, touching down at 5:30am two days later.

With the holiday season fast approaching, Fiji Airways CEO Andre Viljoen says the timing couldn’t be better.

“As we continue to expand our network and launch new routes, we are creating more and more pathways for Australians to access popular travel destinations, cementing Fiji as a convenient connection or stopover destination to further afield,” Viljoen adds.

Although currently using the airline’s A330, it may see a future upgrade, with Fiji Airways hoping to add more Airbus A350s to its fleet and already earmarking Vancouver as one of the cities those lie-flat business class-equipped jets will be flying to.

Fiji Airways' A350 business class.

“We are considering taking on two more A350s and swapping out two of our A330s… we will use the new A350s on our bigger destinations,” says Fiji Airways CEO Andre Viljoen.

“So Hong Kong and Singapore will use the A350s as well as to Vancouver.”

The Executive Traveller review of Fiji Airways’ A350 business class cited the seat as “an impressive business class product” built around the same popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond platform as Air Canada’s Signature Class and British Airways’ latest Club Suite.

The arrival of those A350s will in turn allow the A330s, which have older-style ‘sloping sleeper’ angled beds in business class, to be sent “to Narita and probably as a supplementary to Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane etc,” Viljoen previously told aviation blogger Sam Chui.

“You do have a slight slope,” Viljoen noted of Fiji Airways’ A330 business class. “Where they are perfect is on the four-hour flight… anyone going to Auckland or to Sydney, they're not going to complaint.”

For Australians connecting to those twice-weekly Vancouver flights, Fiji Airways currently offers twice daily flights from Sydney to Nadi, and daily flights from Melbourne and Brisbane, in addition to twice-weekly from Adelaide. 

Those connecting from elsewhere in Australia can take advantage of codeshares on select routes with Oneworld Connect Partner sponsor airline Qantas, along with the ability to earn and redeem Qantas Points and Status Credits on eligible fares and flights with Fiji Airways. Stopovers en route to the US are worthwhile too. 

Earlier this year, Fiji Airways rolled out a fresh business class menu offering ‘Island fare with flair’ such as tiger prawn cutlets and kava ice cream. 

Additional reporting by Chris Ashton