Actually Lead Sled APNG are a very profitable company. I am sure if you look at the POM SOX site you will see that they made a quite respectable profit last year. Air Niugini on the other hand loses money hand over fist, it is a legacy state owned Airline. Definitely an odd coupling. What does this mean for the
VB/Pac blue code share which I think is due to be renewed soon.
PNG is due to experience amazing growth in the next few years think LNG the clean green fuel of the future two massive projects just starting- and a Carbon conscious world. Then there is Gold who's price will not go down in the forseeable future as the world stumbles along recovering from it's debt hangover. Not to mention all the other resource projects coming on line. They really have an embarrassment of riches. They simply cannot man up fast enough to do all the work on offer. They are doing incredibly well and suffering from a lack of manpower, aircraft and infrastructure. The decision to work together with the government and Air Niugini for the greater good would seem sound. APNG have sound management and big contracts plus an RPT network that has a load factor in the 90's. They carry enormous amounts of freight and have a pretty good work force, so it is a win for Air Niugini.
What astounds me about this is that it is not a take-over as such but a merger, according to the press release. In Australia you would never get away with this, it would be akin to Telstra and Optus merging.
Definitely interesting times ahead. Life is never dull in PNG