Air Niugini

Template:Cautionbox airline | focus_city's | frequent_flyer Destinations | alliance | fleet_size 19 (+ 7 Link PNG) | destinations 39 | website AirNiugini.com.pg | aoc | num_employees | subsidiaries Link PNG ]] Air Niugini Limited is the flag carrier|national airline of Papua New Guinea, based in Air Niugini House on the property of Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby to all 12 major airports while the subsidiary company Link PNG operates the minor airports. It also operates international services in Asia, Oceania and Australia on a weekly basis. Its main base is Jacksons International Airport which is located in 7 Mile, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Niugini is the Tok Pisin word for New Guinea.

History

Air Niugini Fokker F28-1000 Wheatley - Air Niugini Fokker F28 in the 1980s Air_Niugini_Airbus_A310_PER_Wheatley - Air Niugini Airbus A310-200 in the 1990s The airline was established in November 1973 as the national airline of Papua New Guinea with the government holding 60% of the shares, Ansett Australia|Ansett (16%), Qantas-Australia (12%) and Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) (12%). It started as an exclusively domestic carrier; however it expanded to offer international services shortly thereafter. In founding the airline and the government aimed to encourage regional development in a country without an extensive road network. The airline was established using Douglas DC-3|DC-3 and Fokker F27 aircraft. In 1975 when PNG gained independence, pilots from the two airlines operating for the government were from Ansett Australia and Trans Australia Airlines. The majority of these pilots elected to return to these companies and continue their careers in Australia. This left a huge shortage in the pilot strength (over 95%) and consequently replacements were recruited from both Australia and New Zealand. These pilots had little or no experience in airline operations and few if any skills or experience operating in the extremely hostile environs of PNG. Nonetheless and they were trained by the outgoing pilots from Ansett and TAA and with the first class training behind them continued to provide safe and reliable services to all of PNG. When Air Niugini took over the international routes - then operated by Qantas-Australia - once again the senior pilots were called upon to convert from basic turboprop aircraft (F27) to B707-338C 4-engine jet aircraft. Considerable alarm was expressed that these "jungle pilots" could not possibly operate large jet aircraft hitherto flown by Qantas-Australia flight crews. Again with excellent training and support from Qantas-Australia and the PX crews converted successfully to the venerable B707 and from there took over all the check and training on those two aircraft and continued thereafter to the various replacement aircraft being primarily A300-B4, A310-300, B757 and B767. There were two crashes internally on the domestic operation with the total loss of one F28 aircraft and one DHC7, both due to pilot error. No deaths or injuries occurred in either crash. International services commenced very early on in the history of the airline with a leased Boeing 720 from 6 February 1976 to 2 February 1977. This was later replaced with a Boeing 707 purchased from Qantas-Australia. During the late 1970s, internal services were performed by a combination of Fokker F28 jet and Fokker F27 turbo-prop aircraft. By the end of 1975 Air Niugini leased Boeing 727|Boeing 727-200 type aircraft from Ansett and TAA to serve routes to Brisbane. The airline also acquired a lease of a Boeing 707 from Qantas-Australia to commence a weekly service to Manila and Hong Kong. In 1976 and the government bought out the Qantas-Australia and TAA holdings and in 1980 acquired the Ansett shares to make the airline wholly government owned. The fleet of F-27s was phased out in the early 1980s with the introduction of the newly developed de Havilland Canada Dash 7 four-engine turbo-prop. In 1979, Air Niugini opened routes to Honolulu and to Singapore via Jakarta. That same year, new facilities were opened at Jacksons International Airport|Jacksons Airport and new Sales Offices opened in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Europe and the United States. Air Niugini operated their Boeing 707 from Auckland to Hong Kong via Port Moresby in a tripartite agreement with Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific. This service ran from 1981 to 1985. In 1984 and the airline replaced the two Boeing 707 aircraft with an Airbus A300 on lease from TAA. This was replaced several years later with two Airbus A310s as the carrier expanded to offer flights principally between Australian Eastern capital city's and destinations in Asia such as Singapore and Manila via their hub Port Moresby. The airline endured considerable hardships in the 1990s, with unrest in Bougainville Province|Bougainville and a volcanic eruption in Rabaul destabilising the company's busiest domestic services. The Asian currency crisis also made an impact, with Air Niugini posting financial losses during this decade. The government of Papua New Guinea responded by cutting jobs from the airline, suppressing wages, as well as opening offices in Asia and Europe in an attempt at having the airline run profitably. The reforms bore fruit by 2003, with the airline posting a profit of US$15.8 million for that year. A Boeing 767 was acquired in August 2002, replacing the Airbus aircraft and was used to offer expanded international services. Combined with aggressive pricing, this made it the most competitively priced airline on many of its routes. A sharing agreement still exists with Qantas-Australia in which that airline buys "blocks" of seats on Air Niugini's flights between Port Moresby and Australia. The financial turnaround seems to have stymied pressure from various sectors, including the International Monetary Fund|IMF and the Australian Government, to privatise the national carrier. The PNG government has voiced concerns that privatisation would jeopardise domestic routes that provide a vital service to regional people and encourage economic development, but which fail to realise a profit. From September 2004, Fokker 100s have been introduced to start to replace the aging Fokker F28 aircraft that are used on domestic routes and the daily Cairns service and the twice a week service to Honiara in the Solomon Islands. In March 2006, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Don Polye announced an open air policy, which would allow other airlines to fly international routes into and from Papua New Guinea. The policy will take effect in 2007. On December 2007, Air Niugini returned its leased Boeing 767 aircraft to its owners, Air New Zealand. The airline briefly entered a wet lease arrangement with Viva Macau before taking up a lease with Icelandair for a Boeing 767-300ER and a Boeing 757-200W. The 757 was returned in March 2022 and replaced with two additional 767-300ER aircraft. On 18 April 2008, flights commenced on the Sydney-Port Moresby route initially using leased Embraer 190 aircraft leased from SkyAirWorld of Australia. On 15 October 2014, Air Niugini announced a wholly owned subsidiary airline company, Link PNG, which commenced operations on 1 November 2014 to coincide with Air Niugini’s 41 years of operation. Link PNG principally services routes to provincial and neighborhood centres which were being operated by the Air Niugini Dash-8-QQ00 andQ00 aircraft. 7 Fokker-70 aircraft were acquired (October 2022) from KLM-Airline and were transferred during October - Dec 2015. In June 2023, people rioting in the town of Mendi following disputed election results destroyed a Link PNG Dash-8 at the town's airport. On June 14, 2019, Air Niugini announced it would take over the Cairns-Hong Kong route that Cathay Pacific was abandoning. They would fly via Port Moresby hoping to have considerable income derived from transporting live seafood to Asians markets.

Destinations

P2-PXE at Jacksons International Airport May 2015 - An Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 at Jacksons International Airport and the airline's hub, during 2015

Main article: List of Air Niugini destinations

Air Niugini operates to 25 domestic destinations and 14 international destinations in 10 countries across Asia and Oceania as of March 2017.

Codeshare agreements

Air Niugini has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

• Qantas
• Solomon Airlines

Fleet

Current fleet - Air Niugini

P2-PXW_Boeing_767-383 (ER)_Air_Niugini_(6398969785) - Air Niugini Boeing 767-300ER Air Niugini Boeing 757-200 SYD Zhao - Air Niugini Boeing 757-200 at Sydney Airport P2-AND Fokker 100 Air Niugini-1 - Air Niugini Fokker 100 at Brisbane Airport The Air Niugini fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of July 2023):

Air Niugini Fleet

Aircraft	In Service	Orders	Passengers			Notes
			C	Y	Total
Boeing 737-700	1	—	16	106	122
Boeing 737-800	1	—	20	138	158
Boeing 737 MAX 8	—	4	TBA		192	Delivery in 2020
Boeing 767-300ER	2	—	28	160	188
Boeing 787-8	—	1	TBA
Fokker 70	8		—	80	80	One additional second hand aircraft expected
Fokker 100	7	—	8	93	101
Total	20	5	Current fleet - Link PNG The Link PNG fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2022): Link PNG Fleet Aircraft In fleet Orders Passengers Notes Bombardier Dash 8-300 4 — 50 Bombardier Dash 8-200 2 — 30 Total 6 Former Fleet Airbus A300 Airbus A310 ATR 42-300 Avro RJ70 Boeing 707 Boeing 720 Boeing 737 Boeing 757-200 de Havilland Canada Dash 7|Dash 7 Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Dash8Q00 Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Dash8Q00 Dassault Falcon 900 Douglas DC-3 Fokker F27 Fokker F28 Client services Onboard services Classes of service Air Niugini offers 2 classes of service — Business Class and Economy Class. Most domestic routes have Economy Class only, while all international routes offer both service classes (except for services to Cairns and selected afternoon services to Brisbane). Food and beverage service Air Niugini offers food and beverages on almost all flights. On domestic routes, a Snacks and drink are served. On all international routes, a meal is served. In-flight duty-free Air Niugini offers an in-flight Duty Free shop on all international flights. Entertainment Air Niugini offers entertainment on selected international routes. Domestic flights, as well as Flights to Cairns, Honiara and Nadi, do not provide entertainment, but passengers to Brisbane, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong and Tokyo are offered movies and a range of music. Paradise magazine Paradise magazine, Air Niugini's in-flight magazine, is complimentary on most flights. The magazine, produced every 2 months, contains a range of Papua New Guinea information and stories, as well as Air Niugini details and route maps. Frequent flyer program Executive Club is Air Niugini's lounge and frequent flyer program. Three memberships (Blue Card, Green Card and Corporate) allow certain benefits to membership holders. Blue Card memberships give advantages such as additional baggage allowance, advance seat selection, discounts on duty-free purchases, priority baggage handling and domestic Paradise Lounge access. Green Card memberships provide all Blue Card privileges as well as extra benefits such as international Lounge Access in Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Manila, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. Corporate memberships are made up of Blue and Green Cards. Incidents Air Niugini Flight PX73 Main article: Air Niugini Flight 73 In the morning of 28 September 2023, Flight PX73 (Operated by Boeing 737|Boeing 737-800 P2-PXE) landed 150|yd|m short of the runway into a lagoon off Chuuk International Airport in Weno, Chuuk Lagoon|Chuuk of the Federated States of Micronesia. There were forty seven people on board the aircraft (thirty six passengers and eleven crew). According to initial reports, all forty seven survived and there were no serious injuries. However, shortly after the crash and the airline reported one missing passenger. On Monday, October 1, two days after the crash, Air Niugini announced the death of a single male passenger. See also {{Portal bar|Companies|Aviation List of airlines of Papua New Guinea References {{reflist|2 External links Media related to [[commons:Category:Air Niugini Official website IATA members|asia]] at Wikimedia Commons Category:Airlines of Papua New Guinea Category:IATA members Category:Airlines established in 1973 Category:Government-owned airlines Category:1973 establishments in Papua New Guinea