The airline was established in November 1973 as the national airline of Papua New Guinea with the government holding 60% of the shares, with the rest divided between Australian airline companies Ansett (16%), Qantas (12%) and Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) (12%).[3] It started as an exclusively domestic carrier; however it expanded to offer international services shortly thereafter. In founding the airline, the government aimed to encourage regional development in a country without an extensive road network. The airline was established using DC-3 and Fokker F27 aircraft.[4]
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Nonetheless, 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 - once again the senior pilots were called upon to convert from basic turboprop aircraft (F27) to B707-338C 4-engine jet aircraft.[citation needed] Considerable alarm was expressed that these "jungle pilots" could not possibly operate large jet aircraft hitherto flown by Qantas flight crews. Again with excellent training and support from Qantas, 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.[5][6] 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 727-200 type aircraft from Ansett and TAA to serve routes to Brisbane.[7] The airline also acquired a lease of a Boeing 707 from Qantas to commence a weekly service to Manila and Hong Kong.[7] In 1976, the government bought out the Qantas 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 Airport and new Sales Offices opened in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Europe and the United States.[8] 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, 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 cities and destinations in Asia such as Singapore and Manila via their hub Port Moresby.[citation needed]
The airline endured considerable hardships in the 1990s, with unrest in 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.[citation needed]
A Boeing 767 was acquired in August 2002, replacing the Airbus aircraft, and was used to offer expanded international services.[9] Combined with aggressive pricing, this made it the most competitively priced airline on many of its routes. A sharing agreement still exists with Qantas 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 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.[citation needed]
From September 2004, Fokker 100s have been introduced to start to replace the aging Fokker F28 aircraft that are used on domestic routes, the daily Cairns service, and the twice a week service to Honiara in the Solomon Islands.[citation needed]
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.[10]
In December 2007, Air Niugini returned its leased Boeing 767 aircraft to its owners, Air New Zealand.[11] 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 2011 and replaced with two additional 767-300ER aircraft.[12]
On 18 April 2008, flights commenced on the Sydney-Port Moresby route initially using leased Embraer 190 aircraft leased from SkyAirWorld of Australia.[13]
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.[14] Link PNG principally services routes to provincial and district centres which were being operated by the Air Niugini Dash-8-Q200 and Q300 aircraft. 7 Fokker-70 aircraft were acquired (October 2015) from KLM and were transferred during Oct-Dec 2015.
In June 2018, people rioting in the town of Mendi following disputed election results destroyed a Link PNG Dash-8 at the town's airport.[15]
On 14 June 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 Asian markets.[16]
In July 2023 Air Niugini announced the order of two Boeing 787-8 as replacements for their pair of aging 767-300ER.[17] The airline ordered six Airbus A220-100s in November 2023, with a further two A220-100s and three A220-300s to be leased. The Airbus A220s will replace Air Niugini's Fokker 70s and Fokker 100s.[18] A SkyUp Airlines Boeing 737 was acquired under a wet lease in 2023.[19]
Destinations
Air Niugini operates to 23 domestic destinations and 8 international destinations in 6 countries across Asia and Oceania as of May 2023:[20][21]
In the morning of 28 September 2018, Flight PX 73[22] (operated by Boeing 737-800 P2-PXE) landed 150 yards (140m) short of the runway into a lagoon off Chuuk International Airport in Weno, Chuuk of the Federated States of Micronesia. There were 47 people on board the aircraft (36 passengers and 11 crew). According to initial reports, all 47 survived, and there were no serious injuries.[37] However, shortly after the crash, the airline reported one missing passenger. On Monday, 1 October, two days after the crash, Air Niugini announced the death of a single male passenger.[38]
Solomon Airlines is the flag carrier of Solomon Islands, based in Honiara.
Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" project, the entire airline was rebranded Qantas about a year later with tickets stating in small print "Australian Airlines Limited trading as Qantas Airways Limited" until the adoption of a single Air Operator Certificate a few years later. At that point, the entire airline was officially renamed "Qantas Airways Limited" continuing the name and livery of the parent company with the only change being the change of by-line from "The Spirit of Australia" to "The Australian Airline" under the window line with the existing "Qantas" title appearing above.
Air Vanuatu is an airline with its head office in Air Vanuatu House, Port Vila, Vanuatu. It is Vanuatu's national flag carrier, formerly operating to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and points in the South Pacific. Its main base is Bauerfield International Airport, Port Vila. In May 2024 operations ceased with the airline placed into liquidation by the Government of Vanuatu. Limited domestic services resumed in August 2024.
Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport — colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport — is an international airport serving Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 8 km (5.0 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the suburb of Mascot. Sydney Airport is the busiest airport in Oceania. It is the primary airport serving Sydney and is a primary hub for Qantas, as well as a secondary hub for Virgin Australia and Jetstar, and a focus city for Rex Airlines.
Ansett Australia, originally Ansett Airways, was a major Australian airline group based in Melbourne, Victoria. The company operated domestically within Australia, and from the 1990s, to destinations in Asia. Following 65 years of operation, the airline went into administration in 2001 following a financial collapse and subsequent liquidation in 2002, subject to a deed of company arrangement. Ansett’s last flight touched down on 5 March 2002.
Perth Airport is an international, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, the capital city of Western Australia.
Air Sinai was an airline based in Cairo, Egypt. It operated as a 'paper airline' for parent company Egyptair under a wet lease-like agreement to serve flights exclusively between Egypt and Israel.
The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership (ACLP). It was originally developed by Bombardier Aviation and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launched on 13 July 2008. The smaller A220-100 first flew on 16 September 2013, received an initial type certificate from Transport Canada on 18 December 2015, and entered service on 15 July 2016 with launch operator Swiss Global Air Lines. The longer A220-300 first flew on 27 February 2015, received an initial type certificate on 11 July 2016, and entered service with airBaltic on 14 December 2016. Both launch operators recorded better-than-expected fuel burn and dispatch reliability, as well as positive feedback from passengers and crew.
QantasLink is a full-service, regional brand of Australian flag carrier Qantas and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. As of 2024, QantasLink provides over 2,000 flights each week to 61 metropolitan, regional and remote destinations across Australia, as well as short-haul international services to New Zealand, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
Townsville Airport is a major Australian regional airport that services the city of Townsville, Queensland. The airport is also known as Townsville International Airport, and Garbutt Airport, a reference to its location in the Townsville suburb of Garbutt. Townsville Airport is serviced by major Australian domestic and regional airlines, and in 2011/12 handled 1.7 million passengers making it the 11th busiest airport in Australia.
Port Moresby International Airport, also known as Jacksons International Airport, is an international airport located eight kilometres outside Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. It is the largest and busiest airport in Papua New Guinea, with an estimated 1.4 million passengers using the airport in 2015, and is the main hub for Air Niugini, the national airline of Papua New Guinea. The airport serves as the main hub for PNG Air and Travel Air. It replaced the original Port Moresby airport, in what is now the suburb of Waigani, whose airstrip remained until the 1990s but no trace of which remains, having been built over.
Geraldton Airport is an airport located 6 nautical miles east of Geraldton, Western Australia, in Moonyoonooka along the Geraldton – Mount Magnet Road.
Kagamuga International Airport is the second biggest airport in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and is located in the Waghi Valley, 13 km north-east of Mount Hagen, the capital of Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. The airport has one terminal and two runways, and is operated by its owner, National Airports Corporation of Papua New Guinea.
Lae Airfield is a former World War II airfield and later, civilian airport located at Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The airport was closed in the 1980s, in favour of Lae Nadzab Airport, which was able to accommodate larger jet aircraft. The airport was also known as Lae Drome or Lae Aerodrome.
Qantas is Australia's largest airline. Qantas was founded in Winton, Queensland, on 16 November 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited by Paul McGinness, Sir Hudson Fysh and Sir Fergus McMaster, the latter of whom was chairman. Arthur Baird was employed as a chief aircraft engineer. McGinness left QANTAS for other interests, and Hudson Fysh remained with the company as General Manager & Managing Director. He retired as Sir Hudson Fysh KBE DFC, Chairman of QANTAS in 1966.
Qantas operates a fleet of Airbus A330, Airbus A380, Boeing 737 and Boeing 787 making a total of 125 aircraft. This list excludes subsidiaries Jetstar, QantasLink and Qantas Freight.
Air Niugini Flight 73 was a scheduled service from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, via Chuuk, FSM. On 28 September 2018, a Boeing 737, operated by Air Niugini, landed short of the runway at Chuuk International Airport in Weno (FSM) and came to rest in Chuuk Lagoon. Locals in small boats rescued most passengers and all crew members. One passenger was initially declared missing, and was later found dead by rescue divers. Forty-six people survived but six of them were injured.
Beverly Pakii is a pilot from Papua New Guinea (PNG). She was the first Papua New Guinean woman to be the captain of both a passenger turboprop aircraft and a passenger jet aircraft and was the captain of the first all-woman crew to fly on a commercial flight in PNG.
Ansett Airlines of Papua New Guinea was a Papua New Guinea airline and Ansett subsidiary founded in 1936 as Mandated Airlines.
References
↑ "Airline Codes". The Airline Codes Web Site. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
↑ "Privacy PolicyArchived 31 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine ." Air Nuigini. Retrieved on 3 February 2011. "Air Niugini House Port Moresby, National Capital District Jackson’s Airport"
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
