Inter Island Airways Fiji (Suva) has seen its existing airline services licence expire after it failed to launch operations in 2014 as previously announced.

The island's Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB) told the FijiSun newspaper that it had declined a request for renewal from the carrier's board citing a lack of progress concerning its pursuit of an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from the Fijian Civil Aviation Authority (CAAFI).

It understood the start-up's parent, Las Vegas based Aviana Airways, has been under financial constraints of late which has also affected its other start-up, Manu'a Airways (Pago Pago). Manu'a Airways recently lost a contract to fellow start-up Tausani Airlines (Pago Pago) to operate flights connecting Pago Pago, Tau, and Ofu when it too failed to launch operations in 2014 as expected.

The sister carrier to American Samoa's Inter Island Airways (Pago Pago), Inter Island Airways Fiji had planned to launch flights in December 2013 before revising that date to March then November 2014, before settling on 'early' 2015.

According to its original launch plans, it intended to operate four Do228s and one Do328-100 on island-hopper services connecting both Nadi and Suva with Labasa, Savusavu, Taveuni, Kadavu Island and Rotuma Island. Thereafter, pending authorization from the ATLB, expansion would have included Tuvalu, Wallis & Futuna, Samoa, American Samoa, Niue, and Tonga using both CRJ200 and CRJ700 jets.