From today's Post Courier:
All flights off
ALL domestic flights in the country will be cancelled starting this morning up to midday today while members of the Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) decide whether they will return to work.
Air Niugini general manager marketing Colin Lyttle said the cancellation of the flights comes after the management learned that members of the ATCA refused two proposals offered by the Civil Aviation Authority management yesterday afternoon.
This decision also comes hours after the scheduled flight from Manila yesterday was diverted to Cairns due to the current stand-off by the air traffic officers relating to the Civil Aviation Authority handling of the payment of their accrued entitlements.
Attempts to contact CAA chief executive officer Joseph Kintau yesterday were unsuccessful since reporters were advised he was in meetings during the day.
At 4.30pm yesterday, the airline announced that it had been operating its international and domestic flights without normal air traffic control services for the past 36 hours and would be reducing jet operations as a risk management strategy from today.
Mr Lyttle said normal operations without air traffic services could not be sustained for more than 72 hours, however, in consultation with the PNG Air Service and Civil Aviation Regulatory division, Air Niugini had continued to provide a scheduled service. “There are a couple of issues concerned especially with the busy days coming up like Friday and we do not want to see uncontrolled airspace in the country which could see people’s lives at risk,” Mr Lyttle said.
He said the airline had adopted certain standard procedures for keeping the aeroplanes operating but they had to make sure their operations were within the safety margin.
He said passengers travelling to Papua New Guinea on the Manila flight diverted to Cairns were transferred to other flights and were to arrive on board the Fokker 100 in the afternoon yesterday.
“The stopwork by members of the ATCA in the past two days has impacted a lot on, not only Air Niugini but all international airlines coming into the country as well as the domestic ones,” Mr Lyttle said.
At 5pm yesterday, workers still refused to entertain the proposals raised by the CAA management, claiming if the issue was of importance, then, all arrangements for the payments of the accrued entitlements should have been sorted out five to six months ago. Another airline, Pacific Blue, which started its operations in the country recently, also cancelled its flights for safety reasons.
Mr Lyttle said common sense should prevail between the two parties because the longer the strike continued, the lives of the travelling public were at risk.