The travelling public along with business houses in both the industrial city of Lae in Morobe province and the mining township of Kiunga in Western province, will continue to be impacted if the tussle over the closing of the Nadzab and Kiunga airports, continue.
The matter came about when the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Papua New Guinea (PNG) moved to close these two airports in the country due to safety issues. CASA PNG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of Civil Aviation Mr. Benedict Igo Oraka said in a statement released on Thursday 01st September that the action taken was due to a combination of outstanding issues with the National Airports Corporation (NAC) in its effective implementation of civil aviation requirements for the operations of these airports. “PNG Civil Aviation Rule Part 139.3 requires the NAC have a valid Aerodrome Operating Certificate (ADOC) for the Nadzab and Kiunga Aerodromes or Airports.
The Certificates for Nadzab and Kiunga expired on 31st July 2022. “Audits were conducted on the aerodromes in July. There are 21 Non-compliances or Findings at the Nadzab Aerodrome and 7 Non-compliances or Findings at Kiunga aerodrome. These Findings require closing actions from NAC prior to the aerodrome certificates being re-issued,” the CEO added in that statement.
These findings were also mentioned in parliament the next day, Friday 02nd September, by the Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation Walter Schnaubelt when he responded to questions asked by the Morobe Governor Luther Wenge, on the operational status of the Nadzab Airport. Mr. Wenge concerned about this issue, asked the minister as to when his airport in Lae would re-open because the closure has impacted business houses in the province and has affected travel and movement of people in and out of Morobe.
In response, the minister said that Nadzab along with Kiunga airport, will remain closed indefinitely because the findings, which included insufficient personnel in fire- rescue, aviation security and maintenance services, and the lack of aircraft movement data reported to CASA, must be sorted out by NAC before re-opening. However, things heated up when it was brought to the attention of the minister that the NAC took out a stay order in court, preventing CASA PNG from keeping the airports closed.
Prior to that NAC Managing Director and CEO Mr. Rex Kiponge, said in a statement that the information given by CASA and the minister were misleading and that the NAC submitted the ADOC Renewal to CASA at least 30 days before the expiry date. He further added that the findings for Nadzab and Kiunga do not pose significant safety risk on the travelling public and airline operators.
“These are administrative matters that can be addressed while the airports remain operational,” the CEO further stated in that statement. But things took another turn late on Friday evening when CASA PNG sent out a letter at 9:04PM to all airline operators including Air Niugini, instructing them not to resume flights to either Nadzab or Kiunga airports. Nevertheless, if the airports continue to remain closed, a lot of people will be affected, and businesses will stand to lose a lot. Businesses will need the airports to remain open so that aircrafts can transport in goods and the public will need to travel, either for business or pleasure. Although this may be so, the minister once again remined the public that aviation safety is the government’s priority and when safety is breached, it puts lives in danger.
“I want to assure the public that I will do everything in my power as minister working together with the prime minister and the deputy prime minister to find a solution to this problem and we can try our best to resolve it as quickly as we can,” said the minister.