Airlines PNG committed to Bougainville

Caption: Airline PNG flight into Aropa Airport with passengers disembarking.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, December 14, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

TOUCHING down it Dash 8 aircraft, the first to land on the official opening day of the new Aropa Airport in Kieta, in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARB), Airlines PNG (APNG) had the privilege of flying the principle landowners to the new airport after 23 year since its closure.

Such is the commitment in the time performance that the Airline has affirmed its commitment to the ARB with it committing three flights into the newly reopened port on a weekly basis starting in January in the New Year.

APNG Sales Manager Linda Honey, who was on the flight to attend the opening said that the airline was serious in providing a timely service not only to the travelling public in Aropa, but to that of Bougainville as a whole.

“It feels great to be here because it proves that our on time performance is rating pretty high, it is a fantastic feeling,” she said

“The most important thing is the support of the people in the islands- we’ve started routing through Lae to Hoskin, Rabaul, Kavieng, and onto Buka and now we are tying on to Aropa, which gives people and the whole community a way to travel at a very economical rate of doing it.”

“We are very privileged to see that type of support by bringing in the landowners and we are sure that all the people of Bougainville will support us in the future.”

APNG Airports Manager Mike Wells said that the airline currently operates in 24 airports with plans to drop into Aropa Kieta three times a week in January.

Captain Ralph Teo said that the airpline was organized and ready on time to service the people of Kieta, Bougainville, and the rest of the country with new changes set to be made.

“Christmas time is our busiest with all leave of our staff cancelled to ensure that our customers get to their destinations on time for the festive season and more,” Capt Teo said.

“We are going to have a new branding and a new name and by the end of next year 2015 we are going to have two ATR 72600 brand new airplanes from Europe.”

We are employing national pilots and re-training flight attendants and everything is going forward gearing up for the new planes and APNG is certainly in the forefront in on time performance in PNG.