MORE CHOICES, CHEAPER TRAVEL FOR AIR NIUGINI: Airline flies to Hong Kong

(Islands Business, August 2006)

Writing in the February cover of ISLANDS BUSINESS, its publisher, the late Robert Keith-Reid, singled out Air Niugini as one of only two airlines doing well in the region.

Six months on, the situation remains the same. Indeed during the last few months, confirmed CEO of Papua New Guinea’s national carrier, Wasantha Kumarasiri, there’s been nothing but only good news to announce.

First, Air Niugini, beginning this month, is re-launching its Hong Kong service as an extension of its current Manila flight.

The new service departs Port Moresby for Hong Kong every Tuesday via Manila returning to PNG early Thursday.

“We are excited about returning to Hong Kong as this opens up trade and business opportunities as well as a new source market for tourism from China for the country,” said Kumarasiri.

“With Hong Kong airport being one of the busiest in Asia, Air Niugini’s scheduled service into Hong Kong offers a number of excellent options for same day connections to and from Europe, the Middle East, India and the United States.

“The ground work has been finalised in Hong Kong and we are looking forward to the service commencing August 8.”

Second, the national carrier is boosting its Brisbane service. Apart from a daily service between the Australian city and Port Moresby, Air Niugini will now mount an extra flight to Brisbane every Wednesday.

The new service is clearly the airline’s answer to competition posed by rival local operator, Airlines PNG, which is introducing a new Port Moresby-Brisbane service later this month. It will start as a twice-a-week service with options to increase depending on demand.

Apart from adding another flight to Brisbane, Air Niugini has also released discount fares to “stimulate growth” with airfare reductions for return trips to Australia from PNG and special rates for tourists and families.

The discount fares come in the wake of unrelenting fuel price hikes. To counter it, the national airline has increased by US$17 the fuel surcharge it levies on passengers beginning last May.

Surcharges were imposed on domestic routes in June just as Air Niugini took delivery of its latest Fokker 100 aircraft. The airline is using Fokker 100 jets and Dash 8-200 to service its domestic routes.

With the arrival of the new aircraft, Air Niugini added Buka, the capital of Bougainville, to its growing number of domestic destinations.