Air Niugini

In winning, Paradise beat magazines from many of the region’s major airlines, including Qantas, Virgin Australia, Tiger Air and Fiji Airways.

The World Travel Awards, established in 1993, celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. They are recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of industry excellence.

It is the first time Papua New Guinea’s national airline has won a World Travel Award.

The HA program consists of four pillars that aim to reduce costs, generate more revenue, build a stronger and happier workforce and excel in customer offerings.

Five staff from various departments within the airline were awarded on Friday, 6th November for contributing their best ideas for the months of June, July and August.

Air Niugini Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Alabaster, congratulated the winners on their achievement and encouraged all staff members to continue contributing ideas to the program.

With the peak period approaching, passengers, especially those traveling in from the border town of Vanimo as well as Wewak, Madang and Lae, have been warned not to carry firecrackers or fireworks;

• Onboard the aircraft
• Checked baggage
• Consigned as cargo

“Firecrackers are dangerous goods and forbidden for carriage in a passenger or cargo aircraft as per Civil Aviation Act (2000),” stated the airline.

“Offenders can be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 7 years.

For most of the last sixteen months, the runway at Mount Hagen has been restricted to Dash-8 turboprop aircraft to allow National Airports Corporation (NAC) to complete maintenance and upgrading work on the runway and taxiways at Kagamuga airport. This work is now complete.

This brings the total number of Post PNG Air Niugini ticketing offices throughout the country to four, including Brian Bell Plaza as well as Rabaul, Konedobu and Gerehu. The ticketing office at Gerehu is located inside Bismillah.

The arrangement between the national airline and Post PNG started in 2019 with the aim to establish more ticketing sales outlets that are accessible to customers, and also to strengthen the partnership between both State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

The Board also thanked the people of PNG for their continued support by choosing to travel on Air Niugini.

The Board noted that the last five months have been extremely challenging, however despite the COVID-19 crisis, it was pleased to share some good news on how Air Niugini has delivered for PNG during this tough period.

In a statement, the airline said the SOE Controller issued new domestic travel measures yesterday (Thursday 13^th August), providing the following directives;

Passengers who have already booked tickets prior to Monday morning for travel that day onwards, are allowed to travel without having to get approval. Outbound international travel does not require approval. Inbound international travel continues to require Controller approval, in line with current practice.

And he has been doing his job passionately with loyalty and commitment for the last 47 years. 

Morea Maiu, known to many Air Niugini staff who have come and gone over the past four decades as “father Morea”, is a proud pioneer of Air Niugini who has been working as a driver since the company’s inception in November 1973.

“My job allows me to make contact with staff from different departments within Air Niugini, some on a daily basis. I would have known almost all staff and they would have known me too,” he stated.

The initiative recognises the impact family and sexual violence has on employees, and the increasing costs to employers and businesses in general as a result of this.

Air Niugini Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bruce Alabaster, said with the joint partnership now in place, airline staff who are faced with family and sexual violence can now be able to get timely assistance with well-coordinated processes and procedures in place to guide them.