Fiji Airways

Fiji Airways is one of those airlines you practically never get to see in Europe – and that is exactly why every sighting is special. Fiji’s national airline flies a small fleet of A350s, A330s and Boeing 737s, wears one of the most unusual tails in the Pacific and has a turboprop subsidiary, Fiji Link, for the islands. Here you learn how to identify the airline cleanly, which types it flies and where you have the best chances of a sighting.

Fiji Airways at a glance

Fiji Airways is the national airline of the island nation of Fiji in the South Pacific. Its headquarters and most important hub is Nadi International Airport on the main island of Viti Levu; Nausori near the capital Suva serves as the second node. From Nadi the airline connects Fiji with Australia, New Zealand, neighboring Pacific islands, North America and Asia.

The roots go back to the postwar period. Navigation pioneer Harold Gatty founded the company Katafaga Estates in 1947, and the first flights started in 1951 under the name Fiji Airways – with a seven-seat de Havilland Dragon Rapide, a biplane. After Gatty’s death in 1958, Qantas came in. After Fiji’s independence in 1970 the airline was renamed Air Pacific and carried that name for four decades.

In June 2013 it officially returned to the original name Fiji Airways. The renaming brought an entirely new brand world that still defines the look today. The owners are the government of Fiji, the pension fund Fiji National Provident Fund and, with minority stakes, Qantas and Air New Zealand. Qantas’s stake used to be 46 percent and is now considerably smaller.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code FJ: appears in the flight number, on departure boards and in booking systems.
• ICAO code FJI: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign FIJI: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.
• Fiji Link: flies under FJ flight numbers but with its own ICAO code FJA and the callsign “LINK FIJI.”

How IATA and ICAO codes relate and why two airlines can use the same flight numbers is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained. With Fiji Airways there is another layer: as a oneworld member, the airline sells many flights as codeshares with partners. An FJ flight number can therefore also appear on a partner’s flight.

The fleet: small but versatile

Fiji Airways operates a manageable fleet that divides clearly into three levels: widebody jets for long-haul, Boeing 737s for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, and the subsidiary’s turboprops for domestic routes. According to the available fleet overviews, the jet fleet looked like this in July 2026:

Type	Count	Seats	Use	Spotter note
Airbus A350-900	4	334	Long-haul, e.g. Los Angeles, Sydney	Flagship, first A350 in the South Pacific
Airbus A330-200	3	273	Long- and medium-haul	Shorter version of the A330
Airbus A330-300	1	313	Long- and medium-haul	One-off – a sought-after subject
Boeing 737 MAX 8	5	170	Australia, New Zealand, Pacific	Newer 737 generation
Boeing 737-800	1	170	Australia, New Zealand, Pacific	Last Next Generation 737 in the fleet

Because the fleet is so small, even a single leased or returned aircraft changes the picture. So take the numbers as a snapshot. The manufacturer of the widebody jets is Airbus, and the short- and medium-haul jets come from Boeing.

A350-900: the flagship

In November 2019, Fiji Airways took delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 in Toulouse – according to Airbus, it was thereby the first airline from the South Pacific with the type. The aircraft with the registration DQ-FAI and its sister were leased from DAE Capital of Dubai and were originally intended for Hong Kong Airlines. The A350 has 334 seats in two classes: 33 business seats that convert into lie-flat beds and 301 economy seats, some with extra legroom. It was initially deployed to Sydney and Los Angeles. Four A350-900s are now part of the fleet.

A330neo? What the sources say

The A330neo is occasionally associated with Fiji Airways. In the fleet overviews reviewed for this page, though, it does not appear. What is documented: when choosing its new long-haul jet, the airline evaluated the A330neo and the Boeing 787 in 2019 and then chose the A350-900. According to these sources, the A330 fleet consists of A330-200s and A330-300s. If you have a Fiji Airways A330 in front of your lens, look at the registration and cross-check it instead of guessing the version. How the A330neo differs visually from its predecessor is shown on the pages for the A330-900 and A330-800.

Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 737-800

On routes to Australia, New Zealand and the neighboring islands, Fiji Airways uses the Boeing 737 MAX 8, supplemented by one 737-800. According to the fleet overview, both versions have 170 seats. For spotters the mix is appealing: a single 737-800 in an otherwise newer fleet is quickly the aircraft that is last to be missing from the collection.

A350 or A330? How to tell the widebody jets apart

Both Airbus types wear the same livery and are similar in size. From a distance, for example on final approach, they are easily confused. A few features help you.

The finer points between the A350 and the Boeing 787 are explained in the article A350 or Boeing 787?. And if you also see older four-engine jets alongside Fiji Airways in the Pacific, A330 or A340? helps you sort them. You tell the A330-200 from the A330-300 mainly by fuselage length: the -300 is noticeably longer, while the -200 looks stubbier.

How to recognize Fiji Airways

The most striking feature is the tail. It shows a design modeled on masi, Fiji’s traditional bark cloth, which is printed with geometric patterns. The design was created by the Fijian artist Makereta Matemosi; it was unveiled in 2012 as part of the renaming. Together with the “Fiji Airways” titles on the fuselage, it makes a picture you won’t confuse with any other airline.

On older photos from archives and spotter databases, you will still find the Air Pacific brand. If you’re sorting historic pictures, these belong to the same airline, just from the time before 2013. Back then Air Pacific flew Boeing 747s and 767s, among others; the last 747-400s left in 2013.

The second unambiguous feature is the registration. Fiji uses the prefix DQ-, and Fiji Airways’ jets mostly wear registrations beginning with DQ-F. How registrations are structured worldwide is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations. And because leased aircraft sometimes switch between registries, a look at offshore registrations and leasing is also worthwhile.

Fiji Link: the turboprop subsidiary

Fiji Link is Fiji Airways’ wholly owned subsidiary for domestic and short regional flights. The company traces back to Sunflower Airlines, founded in 1980, which later flew as Sun Air. Air Pacific took over the operation in 2007 and continued it as Pacific Sun; since 2014 it has operated as Fiji Link.

The fleet consists of turboprops that are at home on short island runways: the ATR 72-600, ATR 42 and the DHC-6 Twin Otter. From Nadi and Nausori, Fiji Link flies to smaller Fijian islands such as Taveuni, Kadavu or Rotuma, plus Tonga and Tuvalu. If you vacation in Fiji, you can therefore collect entirely different subjects at the small island airfields than at the big hubs.

Network and alliance

Fiji Airways joined oneworld in December 2018 as a Connect member and was later upgraded to a full member. According to oneworld, the airline serves the alliance hubs Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo, among others. That means you’re in the right place for Fiji Airways mainly near its partners: American Airlines in the US, Qantas in Australia and Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong. An overview of the three big alliances is in the article Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.

The routes to Australia and New Zealand make up a large part of the network. Besides that, Fiji Airways connects Fiji with neighboring states in the Pacific and with North America. Routes and frequencies change with the season and tourism, so always check the current schedule before spotting.

Spotting Fiji Airways

Because Fiji Airways doesn’t fly to Europe, for a sighting you need either a trip to the Pacific region or to the US West Coast. Your best chances are at these places:

Long-haul flights often have fixed times of day. So plan around weather and light: the spot map in Planetrack shows you how to get there, the best light and community photos, and the sun position planner tells you whether the sun is on the right side at the arrival time.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Air Pacific for a different airline – it’s the same company, just under the name used from 1970 to 2013.
• Taking every FJ flight for Fiji Airways – domestically Fiji Link flies with its own ICAO code FJA, and in codeshares partners do too.
• Equating the A350 and A330 from a distance – the cockpit mask and wingtips give away the type.
• Logging every Fiji A330 as an A330neo – according to the sources reviewed, Fiji Airways flies A330-200s and A330-300s.
• Confusing the 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 – the MAX has engine nacelles with serrated trailing edges.
• Taking DQ- for a typo – it’s Fiji’s regular registration prefix.

Conclusion

Fiji Airways is a small airline with a big effect on spotters: the masi pattern on the tail and the DQ- prefix make every aircraft unmistakable. With A350s, A330s and Boeing 737s on one side and Fiji Link’s turboprops on the other, a manageable fleet holds a lot of variety. If you spot on the US West Coast, in Australia or in New Zealand, you have good chances – and if you travel to Fiji, you can collect the whole fleet in one place.