[Photo: FILE]

The Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji is struggling to reach full staffing due to high training costs and a shortage of qualified professionals.

Presenting its 2024 Annual Report to the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, CAAF confirmed it is at 95% capacity with five vacancies.

CAAF Executive Manager Standards and Compliance, Sereima Bolanavatu, says many aviation professionals prefer private industry roles, which offer higher pay than the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji.

“So that is one of the challenges that we have in trying to ensure that we are able to have the 100% staffing level at the authority. But we have other remunerations that are more attractive. Aside from the salary, we have flexible working policies such as work from home.”

Bolanavatu adds that they also provide professional training opportunities.

“So as part of our training plan, we have had to space out the training in terms of priorities on what can be delivered or what a staff member can go through for each year. And basically, for the training plan, we try to ensure that the training plan will be implemented fully by the third year of when a staff member comes on board, or when a new staff member comes on board.”

Executive Manager Corporate Services Niroshana Perera says recruitment efforts have been ongoing at CAAF, but suitable candidates remain difficult to find.

“We have advertised a couple of times we cannot get the right person to fill in the position. So we are not trying to fill in just the head. We are trying to make sure that we have the right person at the right place.”

To address these challenges, CAAF has relied on international scholarships and fellowship programs offered by countries including Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States.

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