Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PNG’s national airline to buy new planes

Posted at 01:40 on 28 May, 2009 UTC

Papua New Guinea’s national carrier is to buy a new Boeing 767 and F-100 aircraft to compliment its regional expansion programme.

The Minister for State Enterprises Information and Development Co-operation, Arthur Somare, recently revealed the plan by the state-owned airline to begin its re-fleeting program when he was commissioning upgrading work on Wewak’s Boram Airport.

According to the Post Courier newspaper, the airline has begun an ambitious service to Nadi in Fiji using its F-100 aircraft and will begin a Cairns-Kokopo in East New Britain service later this year.

Mr Somare says the airline company has completed negotiations to buy the new B767 to cater for more international flights.

The Government has indicated that several airports including Enga Province’s Wapena-manda Airport will be upgraded to cater for bigger aircraft and direct flights from overseas.

He did not specify where funding would come from to purchase the new planes.