The national flag carrier Air Niugini is taking steps to improve its services to the people with plans to bring in new fleet of aircrafts and also to recruit new pilots and aircraft engineers.
The Minister for State Enterprises, William Duma, said that a lot of pilots and engineers have moved on to greener pastures overseas, living gaps to be filled. To compensate for this, the minister said the airline is embarking on a recruitment drive with the introduction of a training scheme for national pilots to be recruited and trained.
“This was a scheme that was in place couple of years ago, but was discontinued,” said the minister. “The board and management have decided to introduce a scheme where we will have a pilot training cadetship program, as well as the recruitment of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers.”
In terms of the new aircrafts, the minister said the F70s and the F100s will be replaced with new jets.
“Cabinet on the 10th of May authorized Air Niugini to purchase four used Dash 8 Q400 turbo prop aircrafts to replace some of the aging aircrafts and they will come in by the endo of this month and July,” said the Minister Duma.
The purchase of these Dash 8 aircrafts will be met by Air Niugini’s internal cash flow.
“The other major decision Cabinet has authorized Air Niugini to do is to select eleven new jets to replace the F70s and F100s, and they will come into service our routes from 2024 to 2026.”
“So, we will see eleven new jets, half will be purchased, the others will be leased until Air Niugini can purchase them outright,” said the minister.
The minister said this in response to questions from the Member for North- Fly on the current status of Air Niugini during question time in parliament this week.