Todays Post Courier whilst not very subtle is certainly to the point.
Interesting questions that I doubt will be answered.
Why is Air Niugini leasing more aircraft?
APPARENTLY perfectly good F100 aircraft are lying around the airport while a squadron of leased aircraft are doing the work.
In previous years the airline made money.
Now they admit they are losing money since the new general manager took over.
There is that absolutely horrible little Embraer 145 on the Cairns service. What did we do to deserve that?
There is the quite presentable Embraer 190 on the Honiara run which somehow misses out on Port Vila half way between Honiara and Nandi. Why?
Both the Cairns and the Solomon Island service can be done comfortably, in many ways, with the F100. Why these two aircraft from Sky World?
Is there any substance in the claim that there is a less than arms length relationship or distance between certain members of Air Niugini expatriate administration staff and the managers of Sky World?
In addition to the two Sky World aircraft there have been so many other leased aircraft as to make one’s head swim.
The Viva Macau 767 and that other joke that could not fly from Port Moresby to Narita directly but had to circuit the whole South West Pacific Ocean, turning a six hour trip into a 10-hour trip or more.
Now we have the Icelandic 757. Quite a nice plane but at what price?
Isn’t this the same mob that were mentioned in the PNG Diary scandal many years ago?
And the 767 which seems parked more than it is operating.
How could anyone lose eight million kina plus, on the Japanese service?
Now, however, the Government is going to put up K12 million to subsidise the Japanese route.
The boys can budget to lose that as well.
And that is just the overseas sector, discounting the absurd foray into KL.
The domestic routes are falling apart.
When are the F70s to arrive? Will they also be leased?
It has been suggested that the poor performance of Air Niugini could be leading up to a situation where the national airline will be ripe for a bankruptcy takeover in the not too distant future.
Of course that is just pure rubbish.
