National airline, Fiji Airways has revealed it has taken a major cutback in hiring expatriate pilots.

This has been confirmed by Chief Executive Andre Viljoen.

He says they are considering hiring more local pilots and this is possible through their Aviation Academy.

Viljoen says they will reduce their pool of foreign pilots by more than half.

“There is a very interesting development with the academy that has to enabled us to, I call it to convert and upgrade more Fijians where we before had around 80 foreign pilots, we believe when we get to full flying we’ll probably only need 25-30 and no longer 80.”

He says they will be making an announcement sometime later this week regarding these substantial achievements.

Viljoen says when the borders reopen in December, the majority of their pilots and first officers are going to be locals.