Regardless of the price of gas, this could have serious implications for Air Niugini.
The long honey moon may be about to end for Air Niugini. In reality I guess it was only going to be time b4 someone else moved in on the POM-BNE route. Given the state of the PNG resources boom at the moment, I recon it will be good timing. Hopefully it will also boost tourism for PNG.
Given the way Air Niugini is being run at the moment, Virgin will just sh!t all over Air Niugini. Funny thing is that the PNG government approved this, and they fully own Air Niugini. Maybe it's time the PNG government sold Air Niugini, it may be the only option given the amount of dead wood in all levels of Air Niugini.
The other problem is going to be availability of gates at POM. At the moment there isn't enough space to park all the aircraft that operate in and out of both the international and domestic terminals. Maybe it is time to bulldozen the old terminal and build a new one and start using that as well. It would be ideal to use as another domestic terminal.
Interesting times ahead.