The Fiji Airports Limited today handed $45 million to government as dividend payout.

While receiving the cheque, Public Enterprise Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this is another exceptional financial performance in announcing record audited profits before tax of $80.2million for the financial year ending 2017.

Sayed-Khaiyum says Fiji Airports has come a long way to be what it is today.

“It has now reached unprecedented levels of payment, last payment we received $45million and today again as we have seen, we received another $45million. If you combined the amount of dividend that AFL has paid to us in the past four five years, it’s been more than AFL has ever paid before since its entire inception.”

He says its profitability has grown by 1,000 percent or tenfold in the last five years.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds despite the fact all other fourteen airports in the network of Fiji Airports makes a loss, the company has embarked on an ambitious and unprecedented capital infrastructure upgrade program for these airports.

Fiji Airports Executive Chair Faiz Khan says they have paid $145million in dividends to their shareholders over the last 5 years, however, it had paid $14.91million dividend in its entire history prior.

Khan says the significance of this must be put into context with the fact that over the last 5 years, Fiji Airports had undertaken some of the most major capital infrastructure upgrades in its history.

Fiji Airports is the largest dividend payer to the government.