Air Niugini’s first of two Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be arriving this week.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Gary Seddon confirmed with this newsroom this morning.
“We are just getting it registered for PNG.”
Mr Seddon further clarified that the cancellation of the purchase of Dash 8-Q400 last month was due to the substandard quality of the aircraft.
“I did cancel the Q400 because we weren’t getting what we needed. I have a new order in place.
“But I don’t want to waste our money on planes that will just sit there broken,” he told this newsroom.
Air Niugini turned down an arrangement to purchase four Dash8-Q400 turboprop and two Boeing 737-800 aircraft as the aircrafts were not to standard.
The aircrafts were expected to arrive in September this year but didn’t eventuate as a result.
However, the first of two Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be arriving this week.
“Air Niugini operates aircraft to one of the highest standards of aviation and airworthiness in the world.
“This is a very good safety benchmark to have. This means that we will not cut corners on our interim aircraft acquisition program.
“And when we discovered that the Q400s that had been previously selected were not to standard, we cancelled the arrangements and went back to market. I will not risk our operations with aircraft that cannot be relied upon to improve our position,” Mr Seddon said.