Metro Man pretty well sums it up. Capt Too Far is on the record as saying getting rid of the expat's contract was the removal of the last bastion of colonialism from PNG. Well they have pretty much achieved that.

Good job ANG management team. You guys really should give yourselves a big pat on the back. What a great little airline you have made. It's a shame there are no pilots left to fly the planes.

Now the only thing that can save ANG is a sh*^t load of cash - and PNG is broke so that ain't gonna happen !!!!!!

So Air Niugini is begging guys to work on their days off and then send out a memo cancelling staff leisure travel (which is simply sub load, space available anyway) until the end of the month.

That's seems a clever way to win the hearts and minds of the pilot group in a time of need.

I bailed out of PX about 1 yr ago when they closed offshore basing.I wondered how long it would take for the ****e to hit.Looks like managements "Kakaruks are coming home to roost" about now.Too much damage done for the offer of an extra "30 pieces of silver" to WDO will have any effect.To those still there,plenty of jobs around "in the real world!"

time to get some Antonov's in from the Congo?

they would if they could but there is no money left in the coffers to pay for it!

Only chance is if O'Neil is ousted next Friday and the whole ANG board gets sacked - new management throughout - good chance this will happen

Well an overseas holiday and before we even made it through customs at Mascot I had a whole new chapter of the Pixie soap opera to enjoy. By the end of the drive home, there was another chapter. No wonder it has the highest pprune ratings. Truth is certainly stranger than fiction and in this case living up to the "land of the unexpected" tag they used to use.

Having coffees today with an old PX PNG stalwart who is still very well connected it was extremely interesting.
It seems that he has it on good authority that the PM has a cunning plan to avoid losing the vote of no confidence on Friday 22nd.
Seeing as he is well short of the numbers according to the inside sources, he has a plan worthy of any banana republic dictator.

The thrust of the rumoured plan is to select a group of ministers considered susceptible to a little “incentivising” , and fly them and their associates, wives and whoever to Gurney and feed them money and b.s. for a few days.
Then the plan is that they will return to Moresby and all happily vote 1 for Mr O’Neill. This would be exactly what the “concerned citizens movement” doesn’t want of course.
They have apparently said that they would be happy if nothing changed except the current PM was removed from office and politics, although looking at their media releases they would like a much more sweeping change.
Further inside info is that O’Neill has obtained 165 million Kina (from ANZ bank ---I guess there is another mole in there) to fund his little project in Gurney.

However if there are no pilots to fly to Gurney then the plan could come apart, which would make the concerned citizens group very happy. I’m sure that they couldn’t fit enough in the Government Falcon to make it work.

A shame to see the slow demise of what was the old aviation alma mater for so many of us, but as Basil Fawlty said “all good things come to an end.” I find it sad, as my memories of the flying and the living there are all good , albeit a very long time ago now.
The current management have a lot to answer for, it is my contention they would be directly responsible for the causing the obvious "disengaged" attitude of the pilots with their treatment around their current employment contract.

Karma in action.

More Delays
 

Total chaos again today. Pilots calling in "sick". Flights cancelled, pax stuck all over the country and not able to meet international flights home etc. Total shambles!

Sausage Stuffer they got away but not on PX.

More than 80 Government MPs leave for Alotau | Loop PNG

Latest update from my sources:

Backlog of passengers is now so huge that ticket sales to the public have now been put on hold until at least Wednesday.

National pilots are still calling in sick.

Ex Fokker pilots doing DHC 8 upgrades or conversions to the Boeing fleet have been recalled from courses and SIM back to the Fokker fleet due to severely critical crewing levels.

And of course there are the few leeches who are agreeing to work on days off - and they are the usual well known culprits.

This just came in:

As of now (18:46pm) Sunday 17 July 2016, the following union representatives are meeting.

National Doctors Association President and Secretary, Air Niugini Pilots Reps, Air Niugini Engineers Reps, Maritime Union President, Energy Workers General Secretary and Legal Counsel, Mosses Murray.

NDA President announced that as of tomorrow 9am, all doctors nationwide will stand down and will operate for emergencies only pending the result of the VoNC this Friday. In the meantime, their 21-days petition will go ahead due to 2 other petitions (petitions 2&3).

Pilots and Engineers will continue their strike. Maritime workers have already slowed down their workload. Ships are filled up the wharf. Energy workers are set to join the strike.

All going well, Pilots will continue their strike and Air Niugini Pilots will not fly. A few of the flights that have been undertaken have been under the command of expatriate pilots.

About 40 National pilots will not fly starting again tomorrow onwards.

The position of the Unions was for Peter O’Neil to step down as Prime Minister and has nothing to do with the current political developments for the Vote of No Confidence.

A relative flew BNE-POM yesterday on one of the 767s and it was not full - he had 2 seats. He reckons there were only about 50 people in the POM terminal at 2.30pm. Could not get on a PX flight to Lae until early this morning but when he did there were only about 20 pax and not many people hanging around the airport there either.

40 more called in "sick" yesterday.

Been told a number of expats are about to run out of hours very very soon which will only make the situation worse, but when you are not selling tickets at least the pax numbers are decreasing.

Just imagine if the court case fails, more expats leaving and nationals as well. Could well be the beginning of the end.

Has been suggested to me that if the 4th floor started to read this forum they might find a solution to the shambles they have created.

Sounds like someone might have brought their business plan over from APNG

Foreign Correspondent,ABC Tonight @ 9:20 pm AEST for the latest on PNG Political Crisis.

The court case on the 20th was a non event. Once again the PX lawyer was a no show. The excuse - "He is stuck in Garoka and can't get out".

Pilot lawyer contacted him and he said no way would he let the junior present anything.

So a new trial date has been set - 2 August and is reportedly the FINAL hearing that defines the legal issues and statement of agreed and disputed facts.

So after that the trial proper commences unless the vote of no confidence today changes the landscape.

Just to hand-up to 15 national pilots have just been suspended. No further details as yet.

From the CEO 21/7/16 to all employees:

Dear Colleagues,

As you all know, the call for stop work commenced on Wednesday 13 July 2016. It has significantly affected Air Niugini resulting in numerous flight disruptions and cancellations, complaints from the travelling public and loss of business. By yesterday, 20 July 2016, Air Niugini has suffered the effects of the stop work for one week.

I remind you all the reason behind the call for stop work is political in nature. It is not because of any industrial dispute between Air Niugini and its employees, or any Union group. The advice from the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations is that the stop work action is illegal, as the reason for stop work is not related to any Industrial Issue between the Company and its employees, nor has any application/complaint been lodged with the Department on any Industrial Issue.

Since the stop work actions commenced, Management in Its endeavour to get the Pilots to come back to work has applied due process under its administrative and contractual arrangements. Management has also had informal meetings with certain Pilot personnel with a view to finding solutions to the matter. A formal meeting with the Pilots Air Pilots Union (NAPU) representative has also taken place. In all its efforts, Management has taken a consultative and co-operative approach to address the matter.

Despite all these challenges, Air Niugini has continued to deliver its services safely and expediously as required to the travelling public. However, Air Niugini has also incurred significant financial costs and losses. Air Niugini's image and brand has been affected resulting in loss of confidence by its customers. The relationship with our code-share partners has also been affected. This is an unfortunate and undesired situation.

Management will continue to pursue its conciliatory efforts to address the stop work with the Pilots. In this regard I strongly appeal to this group to seriously consider the effects of the stop work on Air Niugini.

I sincerely thank the majority of all staff for your support and co-operation during this difficult and trying time. I have no doubt you have all contributed enormously, to ensure our customers are served. Your efforts are very much appreciated

Was there a "call to stop work" ? I thought some pilots just went sick, as they are legally entitled (and morally obliged) to do. I hope the suspension notices are suported by Air Niugini's exposition or the pilot contracts. Otherwise the company's management may have inadvertently given NAPU a reason to lodge an industrial complaint.

I have been told by a very reliable source that the suspended pilots are still suspended without pay.

There was even one pilot who was on annual leave overseas at the time who was also issued with a suspension notice!

Pilots have been ordered to see the company doctor for "a second opinion".

This even includes a pilot who had prior approval to take his child to Oz for medical treatment to front the company doctor for a second opinion.

Also the removal of some Cairns flights from the new schedule further reduces the ability to get home on days off. Troops are not happy.

I notice that ANG are operating PX5 POM-BNE this afternoon using a F100. Wonder if it's a shortage of planes or crew?