Fiji Airways flew in its first chartered flight direct from Beijing, China last night.

Rosie Holidays has chartered four Fiji Airways flights to bring in passengers from Beijing and Shanghai to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Fiji.

Rosie Holidays Managing Director, Tony Whitton says this has been a learning process for the company.

‘All of these visitors are coming in with money in their pockets, sense of enthusiasm to be able to enjoy a beautiful South Pacific setting and of course when they left Beijing it was minus ten and to be able to arrive into a tropical environment at about thirty degrees Celsius to be able to start their Fiji holiday, enjoying the Chinese New Year is something I know they are very excited’.

He adds they’ve been working for almost ten years in trying to understand the market, and now have exactly what it takes to entice more visitors.

Fiji Airways Chief Executive Andre Viljoen says this is a milestone for the airline’s charter business.

Another three chartered flights will be arriving in the coming weeks – two from Shanghai and another from Beijing.

The first lot of visitors were welcomed by President Jioji Konrote at the Nadi Airport last night.