Pacific Sun - History

History

Don Collingwood, a pilot and businessman, founded what became Pacific Sun in 1980, under the name Sunflower Airlines, which later changed to Sun Air. It began with a single Britten Norman BN2 Islander aircraft, flying the Nadi-Taveuni route. Other than the BN2 Islanders which remained the backbone of the fleet, the airline operated a wide range of piston and turboprop aircraft including the Beechcraft BE-95 Baron, Beechcraft A65 Queen Air, de Havilland DH.114 Heron, Shorts 330, and de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter. By January 2007 before official handover to Air Pacific, its fleet had grown to 12 aircraft, and the company employed nearly 140 staff.

On 31 January 2007 Sun Air was sold and handed over to current parent company Air Pacific, which had to fight off legal challenge by the now-defunct rival domestic carrier at the time Air Fiji against the handover. Air Pacific then established the domestic airline as Fiji Airlines Limited, trading as Pacific Sun. The airline began operations with eight aircraft, including the introduction of two ATR 42-500 aircraft purchased used from Air Mauritius, along with three existing BN2 Islanders and three DHC-6 Twin Otters. However, the fleet was cut back to just four between December 2010 and June 2011 due to economic cost cutting resulting in the withdrawal of the BN2 Islander fleet as well as one DHC-6 Twin Otter. Two additional leased DHC-6 Twin Otters were added to the fleet during June 2011 to increase the Pacific Sun fleet to six aircraft.