political elements

PNG aviation scene has strong political elements

Pushed into the aviation age early because of its scattered settlements and rugged terrain and because of the impetus provided by an inland gold rush, Papua New Guinea remains the biggest user of aircraft among the Pacific Island countries.

Australia, which had a pioneering role in world aviation history, sponsored most of the early aviation developments in PNG and continues to have a significant involvement despite changes in investment patterns and politics which have followed political independence.

But in its own right PNG today is the major aviationminded country in the Pacific Islands with 240 aircraft on its register. It has 14 major airports on trunk routes, about 130 official airfields and another 90

or so private airfields. It also has one of the world’s largest third level operators, The national flag-carrier, Air Niugini, flies domestic and in ternational routes and is the biggest of the Island flag carriers. Except for a nominal 7% shareholding held by the Australian Ansett group, Air Niugini is owned by the PNG government. It flies to three ports in Australia, to Japan, Indonesia, Hawaii, Hong Kong,' the Philippines and Singapore in addition to its internal oper ations on trunk routes.

It operates two Boeing 707 338 Cs, four Fokker Fellowship jets and five Fokker Friendship turbo-props. It is also planning to bring in DHC Dash Seven aircraft in the belief that these units are particularly suited to

its internal routes and airfields.

Air Niugini grew out of a consortium consisting of the government and three Austra lian airlines Qantas, Ansett and TAA. Politically the airline has been a continuing source of controversy, and it is not stretching the issue to claim that the series of events which brought down the first prime minister of PNG, Mr Michael Somare, can be traced in part to Air Niugini politics. It was over airline issues that Mr Somare split with his transport minister, Mr lambakey Okuk, creating a political enmity which eventu ally brought Mr Okuk to his present position as deputy prime minister in a new govern ment, and with Mr Somare in opposition.

The politics of Air Niugini have centred on financial mat ters, equipment and services.

Twelve months ago the govern ment had to bail the airline out with a special injection of funds and in the past six months the airline has been under rigorous financial re-examination with the introduction of some econ omies. The degree to which highly-paid skilled staff have been brought in from Australia and other countries has been another recurring source of controversy. Mr Okuk, who has become heavily involved in the politics of the airline, now believes it is on its feet again and has predicted that its next financial result will show a pre tax profit of about K 2 million.

The airline is one of the country’s biggest businesses, employing 1850 men and women of whom 400 are non nationals of PNG employed under contracts. The 400 in clude most of the pilots and senior specialised and technical personnel. The airline employs just over 100 pilots, of whom 17 are Papua New Guineans. Six of its Papua New Guinean pilots are at present flying for third-level operators on secondment as part of a pro gramme to widen their experi ence. The airline is also respon sible for crewing the Grumman Gulfstream which the govern ment operates for VIP and personnel transport.

PNG is also the home country of one of the biggest

third-level operators in the world, the Goroka-based com pany Talair which operates more than 60 aircraft. Talair itself is in a sensitive political situation because it was built up and is owned by Mr R. D.

Buchanan who remains qn Aus tralian citizen. However its ob vious contribution to PNG transport requirements, em ployment and training have kept it going despite constant controversy over work permits for skilled non-nationals, route structures and operational con tracts.

In recent years PNG has seen the growth of smaller third-level operators in which the capital is subscribed by groups or organ isations of Papua New Guinean nationals. Typical of these is Co-ordinated Air Services (Co- Air) of Lae which has a fleet of seven and is wholly owned by Papua New Guineans.

Co-Air’s fleet is made up of three Britten-Norman Islanders (a highly-successful type in PNG operations), a Beechcraft Baron and three single-engined Cessnas. The smaller third-level operators are not without their problems because of their de pendence on skills which are often difficult to obtain and which are expensive. The gov ernment has a clear policy of giving preference to ventures owned by PNG nationals, but this alone is not sufficient to ensure survival. Something of the feeling in the industry is obvious in the wording of a recent Co-Air newspaper adver tisement. The wording was ‘De spite the fact that Co-Air is 100% nationally owned and faces strong opposition from companies such as Talair it displays determination to sur vive at a highly competitive level’.

One of the political issues affecting air transport in PNG is based on policies for dividing routes between scheduled air line flights and third-level oper ators. The issue is political rather than technical because of the group interests involved and because of the constant lobby ing which has been created.

Smaller operators complain that they develop new routes only to have the routes taken away from them in favour of

regular airline operators when the routes become viable. They see this as unfair, particularly as the development of new routes often includes the pion eering of new cash crops in remote village areas. The pro duce from the crops is flown out by the air operators, creating agricultural potential which would otherwise not become available.

PNG has inherited its air operating and administrative procedures from Australia, and this too sometimes emerges today as a political complaint.

There are allegations that the Australian provisions are too rigid or stereotyped for PNG requirements. Politicians who want changes find themselves in conflict with the established system and the men who admin ister it.

Inherently the aviation situ ation in PNG is much more soundly based than in many of the Island countries but this is largely a matter of circum stance dictated by the real need

for aviation services in a country which is much bigger than other Island countries in the region. PNG’s handicap is the heavy reliance which it is forced to place on outside expertise and capital, coupled with the political and com munity pressures which are trying to dispense with this reliance as much as possible.

Two ways of remembering a famous aircraft type: Above, turn it into a memorial. Top, put it back to work again. The Douglas DCS was one of the world’s most famous transport aircraft and was a mainstay of airline operations in the Pacific.

Air Niugini retired 11 from ser vice five years ago, and one of the 11 (it was formerly P2-MMA) began flying again recently with an Australian company SETAIR in Melbourne. It’s the one at the back in a flight over Melbourne of SETAIR’s three DC3s. The DCS on permanent display in the other picture is outside Air Niugini’s head office at Port Moresby International Airport.

It’s a memorial to civil aviation pioneers in Papua New Guinea.