Recently I had the pleasure of spending two weeks in Papua New Guinea participating in a Leadership Programme with twenty PNG women. This programme was held at Alexishafen Conference Centre in Madang.

When I read the chairman’s message in the Air Niugini’s in-flight magazine “Paradise”, I found it very difficult to relate the message to reality.

The message was about meeting board targets, financial gain, shareholders’ vision, trade initiatives, and so on, yet on the ground at Madang Airport, it was a very different scene.

Flights on the previous day had been cancelled after boarding passes were issued and people made to believe they would fly out, if not a little bit late.

No flight eventuated and so these people turned up again the next day, along with passengers booked for that day’s flights.

Of the three people who were with me, one was put on stand-by even though we were travelling all the way through to Sydney.

There were three flights set for that morning—7.30, 9 and 11. The 7.30am flight took off and then no more until 1pm—more misleading information!

People were at the airport from 5 in the morning on this particular day, but there was  no service from the airline staff until 6am and then much pushing, lining up in the wrong queue, and so on.

People told me this is a common occurrence—strange when one reads the glowing chairman’s report.

The staff at the airport at Madang were not trained for such situations and hence there was a complete lack of organisation.

PNG people deserve better than this and certainly need an efficient and well-organised airport staff.
 
—Anne Day
AUSTRALIA

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