Courtesy of Trevor Michie's PNG Newsletter
** Government Jet **
I received the following information about the government aircraft after a rumour last week that it may be replaced by a Fokker F100.
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Hi There,
There is only one corporate jet on the PNG Register operated by Trans Air Ltd, that is a Citation C550 10 seat aircraft used primarily for Medical evacuation flights for Niugini Air Rescue, a division of International SOS. The Airlines of PNG (APNG) jet is now in Australia under Australian registration and supporting APNG's Australian operations.
As appears to be fairly usual in the PNG Media (i.e. the newspapers) facts are never really detailed - just words - the old pictures say 1000 words is very valuable. However I have attached a photo and some history behind the Kumul since independence - it is interesting. I haven't bothered with an F100 - we all know what they look like. Anyway I hope this is of interest.
For those receiving the text only version of the newsletter the images mentioned above can be found at --
http://www.pnggossip.com/images/planes/p2-png(jet).jpg and
http://www.pnggossip.com/images/plan...g(kingair).jpg
The 'jet' so commonly referred to as the Kumul Jet is a Beechcraft Super King Air, that is a turbo prop type aircraft (i.e. it has propellers and is the same used by Regional Air, SIL aviation, and the Civil Aviation Authority). So in theory it is not really a jet.
The Government Flying Unit (GFU) used to operate a Gulfstream 3 corporate jet until sold off by the Wingti government - because it was very expensive and limited in places it could travel in PNG. It could only do the sealed main ports similar to the Fokker F28.
The King Air is a better aircraft for Government use as its airstrip capability is acceptable to reach regional ports in the country. Whilst it may not be the "prestigious" option for international travel - it is rarely used for this purpose. In fact most international government travel is made through the use of the government owned airline - Air Niugini.
There are several alternatives for the GFU to make wisely - firstly the present Kumul has a market value of around US900 000. Whilst it is very under utilised the running costs are much, much smaller than a F100 - there are also numerous pilots and engineers rated on this type of aircraft.
A change of craft - regardless of type is always a very expensive exercise sure PGK10M for a F100 sounds cheap - but the additional costs in that maintenance providers have to be trained, flight crew trained as well as other expensive technical issues. But these items are forgotten about as well as the fact that if the aircraft is to be 'borrowed' from an airline operator (Say PX) - then that operator has to have it available for them - or are they expected to put the travelling public off when the GFU needs the plane.
The days of the GFU are numbered - as is the ridiculous situation of the CAA King air - both cost about the same. The CAA aircraft does even less in fact most of the work it 'used' to do is now contracted to a NZ based company! Both should be sold off - then government travel and or the CAA business chartered out to the companies which have the commercial ability to sustain the costs of aircraft operations in PNG.
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