Fiji airways to begin Nadi-Adelaide 30/6/17
 

Afternoon all,

Fiji Airways will begin twice weekly flights between Nadi and Adelaide starting 30/6/17.

Flight operate Monday and Friday...

FJ961 Dep NAN 1630 Arr ADL 2030
FJ960 Dep ADL 2200 Arr NAN 0535+1

More info here: http://australianaviation.com.au/201...g-to-adelaide/

Virgin tried that with friendlier flight times a few years back and it failed terribly, lucky to carry 30 pax.

They were operating without the benefit of a USA connection, might make a difference.

Not much of a connection seeing the LAX/NAN flight arrives at 06.00am and the NAN/LAX flight departs at 21.40pm

Indeed that's a shocker, yet it seems the airline was talking up the possibility. Even their own website shows better options vis Syd etc

The Adelaide flight connects better with San Fransisco. I personally think that's a better option as Adelaide pax. Already have enough connections via MEL, SYD and BNE to LAX.

That's a pretty long haul for a 738. I wonder what sort of payload hit they'll need to take?

It's 200nm less than Sydney Denpasar, and Adelaide like Nadi are both long runways without a pressure altitude impact, allowing for MTOW departures. A 737-800 with 162 pax and bags nil cargo has 3000nm range, which is 325nm more than this route @ MTOW.

Depends a lot on enroute winds and destination weather. Nadi -Adelaide is into the prevailing wind and can knock the payload down significantly.

Getting off the runway at MTOW doesn't help much with a 100-150 kt headwind...

Getting off the runway at max MTOW means max endurance. Yes the headwinds do matter but the prevailing jet stream is easily avoided, 200hPa winds for most of the route would rarely exceed 40-50kts most of the year (different story if you are flying from a more southern port like AKL).

Just like SYD DPS OPs I doubt load limits would be an issue on a regular basis NAN ADL, and the plethora of alternates helps with weather issues.