The Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is pleading with Fijians to look to the future.

While giving his right of reply on the Fiji Airways motion to approve government guarantee for the Fiji Airways borrowing on $455million, Sayed-Khaiyum says we should look beyond our noses by preparing and to be ready if the borders are open.

Sayed-Khaiyum says we cannot be scrambling around when borders are open as planning is crucial now rather than later.

“Of course we can conjecture and say what will happen if the pandemic stays, what will happen if it’s there for the next three years. We are not God but we have to be able to plans and God helps those who helps themselves, we have to be able to plan, we have to be able to pre-position ourselves.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says the national carrier has done a lot for the country and this includes the employment opportunities it creates for Fijians.

“Hundreds of jobs that can be revitalized if Fiji Airways starts flying proper schedule flights, if you have a foreign carrier, they will have foreign crew, if we have a foreign carrier, their catering will be done by a foreign company not by ATV, they were going on about ATS, if Fiji Airways does not fly, the Qantas comes, they food will be catered for in Sydney.”

Tourism Minister Faiyaz Koya says it’s crucial to support Fiji Airways.

“Our National Airline is important because we do not want our trade exports of small businesses and movement of medical supplies and movement of tourists to be at the mercy of another country.”

Parliament has approved a motion to amend a government guarantee for the Fiji Airways borrowing of $455million consisting of a mix of domestic borrowing of up to 191.1m Fijian Dollars and offshore borrowings of up to 117.1 million US Dollars.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the national airline is feeling the full brunt of COVID-19 resulting in job losses and the grounding of flights.