Career
Savu worked at the Central Planning Office as Director of Economic Planning before his stint as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of in 1980. In the 1990s, Savu was the Executuve Chairman of the of Fiji. Within a year of being appointed Chief Executive Officer, Savu was cutting back on staff and services and formultaing a plan of recovery to reduce "s expected $6 million loss to $4 million.
This plan included the Fiji Government buying back shares owned by Pacific Island Countries to make the company wholly owned by Fiji.
Savu said in an interview with the New York Times in October 1981,"If you look at the shareholdings, the intention was that we would be a regional airline." But, with most Pacific shareholders forming their own national airlines he added that,"Our shareholders are competing against themselves." His five-year plan included the purchase of their first $17 million Boeing 737-200 and replacement of inefficient aircraft due to the underestimated competition from Australia and New Zealand and special needs of operating aircraft in the Pacific. The government was not giving them any funding as the commercial airline was not subsidized and instead they had to borrow which was a problem Savu highlighted in the same interview,"You have to borrow, you end up with high interest and a short repayment period." Despite all the problems faced by national airlines in the Pacific, it remained unlikely that any of them would give up the dream of linking their countries to the world.
"I don"t think that"s too ambitious," said Savu. In 1994, Akuila Savu launched an internal inquiry into the finances of the, the otucome of it, he didn"t make public.
He was publicly criticized by then Leader of Opposition Mahendra Chaudhry for this.
After and until his death, Akuila was Deputy Chairman and Company Secretary of the multi-million dollar, under the chairmanship of First Lady Adi Koila Nailatikau. In a 2014 interview with Fiji Sun, Savu announced the company had set up a committee to look into the possibility of a listing in the South Pacific Stock Exchange. An idea first brought up 7 years earlier.
He said,"There are requirements we need to adhere to and therefore it might take us a year or two." Two benefits were highlighted.
"First you can trade your shares and secondly, there can be capital being raised publicly which will mean additional funding," said Savu.
