Hours after Fiji Airways shed 758 jobs, Parliament unanimously passed a motion for Government to provide a $455million loan guarantee to the national carrier.
While presenting the motion, Attorney-General and Civil Aviation Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the loan was urgently needed to preserve and safeguard the national carrier.
He also assured Parliament that “all sorts of budget cash flows, actually have been done, a number of scenarios going into the following year” after a number of Opposition members raised concerns about transparency and accountability.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the Fiji National Provident Fund would provide a loan of $35m, the Reserve Bank of Fiji through its Export Finance Facility would loan $75m to the Fiji Development Bank which would then lend to Fiji Airways.
Domestic borrowing would make up $191.1m while international borrowing would make up $117.1m.
