Airlines PNG to launch new fleet into provinces

Airlines Papua New Guinea will launch its new fleet of ATR 72 aircraft from tomorrow (Thursday 5 November) with its inaugural flight into Nadzab Airport, Morobe Province.

This will also see the aircraft continue its inaugural flights to other provincial airports in the next two weeks from the 5th to 16th November.

The inaugural flights into the provinces throughout the country will display the new brand and livery.

The company is rebranding as PNG Air with the delivery of the first new ATR 72-600.

It is replacing its older de Havilland Canada DHC-8-100 Dash 8 fleet with the new ATRs and has taken the opportunity to change its image.

The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner built by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR.

The aircraft seats up to 74 passengers in a single-class configuration and is operated by a two-pilot crew.

The airline will be the only carrier in the country servicing all major ports in the domestic market with new, efficient, highly reliable, state of the art aircraft.

Airlines PNG chairman Murray Woo recently announced that they’ll be replacing 25 year old aircraft with brand new planes.

Woo announced that the new aircrafts have lower operating costs overall than the existing fleet and much lower operating costs per seat.

They’ll also be much more reliable, have greater capacity and will allow flexible freight and freight/passenger combinations.

The aircraft will continue its inaugural flight to Kagamuga, Mt Hagen and Moro on Friday and Hoskins, West New Britain and Tokua, East New Britain on Saturday.

To support the successful introduction of the new aircraft over the coming months, flight crews have undergone simulator training in Singapore and further line training with Fiji Link.

Author: 
Quintina Naime