Air Niugini

Passengers that have tickets to travel to or from Kieta are able to travel to or from Buka instead with no additional charges, or can rebook their flights to Kieta for future dates without penalties.

There are six weekly operational flights to Buka via Air Niugini and daily except for Sundays, using the Fokker 100 or 70 jet aircraft.

For further bookings or information, passengers and customers can contact Air Niugini’s toll free number 1803444 or visit the nearest Air Niugini Sales Office or travel agent.

Passengers transferring from other countries through Port Moresby to Manila are exempted and are still allowed to be uplifted provided they remain within the transfer lounge at the Jackson’s airport during stopover.

It is advised that passengers that made prior bookings to travel from POM to Manila on flights departing between 19 and 30 September, will have to rebook for other available flights with Air Niugini or their Travel Agents in October/ November.

For the period of 8^th September to 30th October 2021, the number of passengers the airline is permitted to carry into Sydney has been cut by 40 percent by the Australian government.

“Consequently, we expect that some passengers already holding tickets on PX001 to Sydney over this two-month period will not be able to travel, and will be contacted and assisted to re-book their flights for later dates.

Air Niugini has informed the travelling public that the National Airport Corporation has further shortened runways to allow for maintenance work at both airports.

As a result, Air Niugini flights to and from Madang and Wewak are being operated by Dash-8 turboprop aircraft, operated by its subsidiary company Link PNG.

Even these Dash-8 aircraft have restrictions on the number of passengers they can uplift because of the shortened runway.

The resumption of Fokker flights follows the completion of runway repairs by the National Airports Corporation (NAC).

Since the works on the airport runway commenced in February last year, Air Niugini has been operating to Tokua airport using the 76-seat Q402 and 50 seat DHC-8-315 aircraft, but with passenger numbers restricted to as few as 20 at times because of the shortened runway.

On Friday 18^th June, the airline successfully completed a two-week training course for 12 new travel consultants. 

The training covered mainly reservations and ticketing processes using the Sabre Reservations system that is used by many other airlines around the world.

The travel consultants came from Air Niugini sales offices in Goroka, Hoskins, Madang, Kavieng and Port Moresby.

Apart from that, the airline says it continues to implement COVID safe policies for all travellers, to ensure that their travel is safe.

“This includes completion of a NDOH Health Declaration Form for presentation on arrival at your destination, the wearing of facemasks on board aircraft and within airport facilities, use of hand sanitiser and social distancing wherever appropriate and practical,” stated ANG.

The three days training carried out last week, March 23rd to 25th at the Air Niugini Aviation Training Centre at 7Mile in Port Moresby, is tailored for NMSA Captains and Chief Engineers.

This is first IMDG Code training for 2021 carried out by Air Niugini Non-Technical Training Instructor, Martin Tugano. Four more are planned throughout the year.

The training covered general provision for Dangerous Goods transported by Sea, and the classifying, identifying, packing, marking, labeling/placarding and shipping documentation of Dangerous Goods.

The first ever Boeing 737 service will touch down in Gurney at 1120am on Friday 26^th February. Thereafter, the B737 aircraft will become a regular sight at Gurney Airport, with three weekly services from 28^th March on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Fokker jet aircraft will continue to service Alotau on other days of the week.

Chief executive officer, Bruce Alabaster, said using the B737 to Alotau will allow the Fokker jet aircraft that currently service the route to be used to increase capacity elsewhere.

This follows continuous reports that some of their heavily discounted tickets are being resold to the public.

“Customers suspected of purchasing such tickets will have their bookings and tickets cancelled without notice and will be denied boarding,” said the airline.

“Therefore they will lose the money they have paid to the person originally making the booking. They also risk legal action.