Opposition MP Premila Kumar (left), Minister for Civila Aviation Civil Aviation Minister Viliame Gavoka

Leave Fiji Airways alone to run its business says Civil Aviation Minister Viliame Gavoka highlighting that it is not a state-owned enterprise or statutory body.

The Minister says government being the shareholder in Fiji Airways does not interfere in the way airline runs its business.

Gavoka has clarified this as Opposition MP Premila Kumar through her social media account raised concerns regarding Fiji Airways providing a charter flight to Israel.

Kumar also questioned why Gavoka did not talk about investigating to establish under whose directive Fiji Airways provided a charter flight to Israel without collecting a penny from the travellers

Gavoka says the charter to Israel was by Christians on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and it leaves a bad taste in our mouth that all sorts of outlandish statements are being made about the charter.

Questions were also raised if the arrangement was made by Fiji Airways under pressure from the Coalition Government.

However, Gavoka says that it was a commercial arrangement and who knows it could be lucrative in the coming years given the largely Christian make-up of our nation.

Meanwhile, Fiji Airways in November last year emphasized that the decision to operate the charter flight to Israel was based on purely commercial considerations.