The tourism industry is set for a major boost in the Milne Bay Province with the recent arrival of Air Niugini’s Boeing 737 service into the province.
The B737 aircraft made it’s inaugural flight into Gurney airport on Friday and was warmly welcomed by the the provincial government delegates, including Milne Bays Deputy governor Tom Cameron, Alotau Open MP Charles Abel, LLG presidents and the Provincial Administrator Ashan Numa and other dignitaries.
Air Niugini CEO Bruce Alabaster said there was no better time to boost tourism in the province, and with restrictions placed on international borders, the benefits are huge as it gives much more opportunity to discover Papua New Guinea domestically.
” So we will be rolling out getaway fares specifically aimed at tourist domestic travel over the next couple of weeks mainly to stimulate domestic tourism markets at a time, cruise ships aren’t able to come here,” said Mr Alabaster.
The B737 service will be operated into Gurney three times a week, as well as the Fokker aircraft on other days. Air Niugini is also looking to extend its other services into Alotau on Friday and Monday.
“Gurney is the second domestic airport that we’re operating the B737 service to. We operate up to twice daily into Hagen, now to Gurney and we’ll be extending out into Manus as well.”
Mr Alabaster gave his compliments to the national government for the work on the Gurney airport to extend the runway and welcomed the announcement by the Provincial government to build a new terminal.
“It’s a big step for Gurney, as the B737 service is 60% more capacity than the Fokker aircrafts, so its 144 (16 business and 128 economy) passengers per flight that we are able to bring in at any one time.”
Alotau MP Charles Abel extended his gratitude on behalf of the political leadership of the Province to the management and staff of Air Niugini and the board of Air Niugini led by CEO Bruce Alabaster who was personally on the inaugural flight.
“We are grateful for the decision operationally to include Gurney as one of the locations the B737 aircraft can service.”
He challenged Papua New Guinean’s to make use of the B737 service to visit Milne Bay Province and other provinces in Papua New Guinea if they couldn’t travel overseas.
“There are many beautiful destinations within Papua New Guinea and we have them also here in Milne Bay. We’ve got many resorts, world war II history sites, we got some of the best diving spots in the world, beautiful culture and we like to think, we are a peaceful province, so I’m extending an invitation to all of you, please come to Milne Bay.”
The inaugural B737 flight to Gurney was commanded by Captain Moses Padigaga and First Officer Bernice Watinga, both from Milne Bay; a real moment of pride and satisfaction to land the giant bird on home soil.
“Its long overdue, we are no strangers to Alotau; I must say its feels good to be home,” said Captain Padigaga.
