AIR Niugini portrayed a “wrong perception” when it claimed that its operations were affected by the unavailability of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) services.
CAA director Joseph Kintau said Air Niugini had specifically mentioned the unavailability of runway lights as one cause for its unreliable services.
“It is unfortunate that Air Niugini has portrayed a negative public perception on CAA as we meet weekly to address critical issues to help the airline deliver reliable services to travellers,” he said.
He said runway lights generally covered two different sets of lighting systems.
One covers the runway edge lights, runway end lights, threshold lights and taxiway lights, while the other covers the landing lights, which include Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights and TVasis.
“The first set of runway lights is a fundamental requirement for night operations,” Mr Kintau said.
“(However), landing lights are more critical as they provide visual guidance, particularly to turbojet aircraft such as F100s, for safe landing.
“Landing lights are critical to Air Niugini as they provide F100 services but not so crucial for smaller jet-propelled aircraft.”
He said Air Niugini was aware that due to the geographical terrain and unpredictable weather conditions in the Highlands, F100 and other turbojet aircraft were not permitted to land in Mt Hagen and Goroka during the night and bad weather conditions.
“Landing lights are, however, provided at these two airports workings with no problems,” he said.
Mr Kintau said the Wewak and Kavieng airports were currently without runway lights and although resources had been available for repairs, vandalism prevented the CAA from doing so.
“The runway lights at all other airports including Jackson, Nadzab, Madang, Tokua and Momote are fully operational,” he said.
He said despite their efforts, vandalism continued.
“Further to the runway lights and vandalism issue, the CAA’s costs in providing aviation services outside normal Air Niugini flight schedules due to flight delays, cancellations, rescheduling and downgrading have increased significantly in the past few months.”
They include staff overtime, electricity, security and fuel.