Air Niugini / Link PNG - will they survive?
 

One cash strapped airline and a B767 which will probably have to be paid for before leaving the hangar?
Where will support money come from? Australia, China, or Peter O'Steal?

don’t know cobber, they made more profit with their recent announcement!

They have to run pixie like like a charity With the lack of infrastructure in PNG.

Have they reduced domestic network?

Is Wapenamanda open yet?

Good old Aussie taxpayer will have to dig deep yet again as they force us into a bidding war with China. The sooner China takes over, the better.

Lucille,

Surely there would be little taxpayer funds still be available with the hit everyone is taking, and the stimulus the countries will need just to keep themselves going, let alone keeping other economies going. And out of interest, with a large amount of Air Niugini pilots (and just about every other aviation company in PNG pilots) being expats, how will the 14 day isolation when crew return home for days of going to affect the crew numbers. I'd guess that offshore sim travel (nil PNG sims) would be an issue as well for the companies there.

PNG domestic flights haven’t really been impacted, still ops normal at this stage with very little flight cancellations.

Re-currency training likely to be done in the aircraft until the restrictions have been lifted. Wheels are already in motion with regards to addressing this issue I believe.

No reported cases of the virus in PNG, yet......

PX has a very strong (and air travel dependent) domestic market. They also own most of the domestic fleet.

There have been adjustments to the international network (no more SYD, HKG, MNL, NRT or NAN) so there will be some slack in the Boeing fleet, but it is small and manageable. Arrangements and protocols are already in place for crew traveling to sim in Australia.

PX will weather this fairly well I suspect.

Duck Pilot,

The Aussie press are reporting that non residents and non citizens will be banned from entering Australia from 9 pm Friday night, with NZ doing the same from 1159pm tonight.. That could rule out any Australian based SIM training being undertaken by PNG citizens that don’t have residency right.

Maybe some overseas locations but wonder how many Fokker Sims are operating elsewhere. Would CASA PNG allow cyclic training in the aircraft?

Real tough times is a gross understatement.

Yup I suspect so, they are a vital link in a country that has no other transport network. PX RPT pilots already have exemption of travel bans in Australia and PNG to allow them to continue their essential service. The domestic fleets are the largest fleets.

Further email update on PX’s operations to PX staff, by order of the PNG government:

Further to the information sent out this morning, there are further updates following recommendations from COVID-19 National Operation Centre (NOC 19) and National Security Council (NSC) to the National Executive Council (NEC) who convened an emergency meeting. Following on from the emergency meeting of NEC further measures have been passed.



Included as one of the latest measures, ALL domestic flights will cease as of midnight on Monday 23 March, 2020 for 14 days.

Not good as the smaller charter operators will possibly be unable to continue. The cash flow of the charter operators is thin at best and a 14 day hiatus is going to place strain on resources.

Support charters for COVID-19 teams, and law & order operations may provide some work during the 14 days.

Let me know when Noah’s Ark arrives in POM, I’ll be ready to sail at short notice.