Air Niugini

plans expansion

Air Niugini, Papua New Guinea’s national airline, was seeking government approval in July to have two Fokker F2B Fellowship jets in service by November 1.

It will get them from Air Nauru or from a German operator under ten tative negotiations already estab lished.

One of the planned routes for the jets will be to Cairns in northern Queensland.

Lease or finance-purchase plans under consideration will commit the airline to more than $7 million. The airline also plans to buy in Australia a Fokker F 27 Friendship with wide cargo doors to supplement its exist ing standard F 27 fleet.

The airline’s fleet expansion plans were confirmed in Port Moresby following a two-day conference of the PNG National Airlines Com mission, operators of Air Niugini.

The proposed jets will serve the three short-haul international routes which the airline already flies to Cairns, Honiara in the Solomons and Jayapura in Irian Jay a.

Air Niugini will also use the jets on trunk routes out of seven internal ports Port Moresby, Madang, Wewak, Momote (Manus Island), Kavieng and Kieta.

The Kieta route, for which formal airport operations approval is still awaited, serves the big copper mine on Bougainville Island.

Government approval for the jet deal is necessary because the money involved exceeds the limits to which the airlines commission can commit itself. But approval is expected to be a formality following a long series of negotiations involving the airline, the transport department and civil regulating authorities.

Air Niugini is 83% owned by the PNG Government, with the Australian Ansett group holding the balance.

The airline is the only internal trunk operator in PNG, and its in ternational operations take in In donesia, Australia, Solomons, Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.