A message from Air Niugini’s chairman

This year will be an historic one for Papua New Guinea, with our nation celebrating the 40th anniversary of independence. In recognition of this important milestone, Air Niugini will be releasing a range of special promotional offers in the months leading up to September, including more “Tura” fare seats.

This month, we again reduced airfares on both domestic and international sectors as a result of the drop in crude oil prices on the world market. Air Niugini will continue to monitor crude oil prices and pass these savings on to our travelling customers to the greatest extent possible.

In an important recent development, Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu and Solomon Airlines have agreed to a tri-partite code-share agreement that will commence by mid 2015. It will provide mutual benefits for the residents and businesses of all three Melanesian countries and will form the basis for further aviation co-operation within the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

In the latter part of 2014, passenger numbers have been steady on most of our routes. The Hong Kong route has, over the past 24 months, shown strong growth. Due to this increase in passenger and cargo traffic, a third weekly B767 service will be introduced to Hong Kong in the new schedule, effective in March.

All three Hong Kong flights will connect seamlessly in Port Moresby with our flights to and from Honiara and Nadi, in both directions.

Our focus is to develop Port Moresby as a hub to connect the major markets of Asia with the Pacific region. Hong Kong connections to Asia, North America and Europe are also very convenient as well as becoming an effective hub for the whole of China.

The airline will continue in its endeavor to focus on improving customer service in all areas. To this end, the sales team in Port Moresby has been revitalised while the key domestic ports, namely Lae, Mt Hagen and Rabaul, will be provided with more resources.

The launch on November 1, 2014, of Link PNG, a subsidiary of Air Niugini, will help ensure that services to the more remote parts of our vast nation are not just preserved, but expanded.

An update of some of our domestic and international schedules is set out in the Airline News section on page 11.

I trust you are enjoying the new-look Paradise magazine. It is our aim to provide our readers with awareness about some of the places one can travel to, both domestically and internationally.

Enjoy your flight with us today and, if you want to learn more about Air Niugini, please visit us at airniugini.com.pg Sir Frederick Reiher, KCMG, KBE Chairman, Air Niugini Limited