 |
|
 |
|||
 |
As cancellations and delays are so rampant, everyone using Air Niugini (there is no competition in this sector) have to factor these into their travel plans. And this is not a joke. It seems the days when flights are on schedule are gone. Air Niugini has become so unreliable in recent weeks that the grassroots travellers must have sufficient money (preferably in cash) to avoid getting into trouble and stranded when Air Niugini suddenly cancels a flight without prior notice to say 3.30am at Jackson Airport in Port Moresby. The cash can also be used to bribe, yes bribe, one’s way into getting a seat confirmed when on wait list or to have baggage checked in even if it is above the 16kg allowable weight per passenger. If one is lucky, he or she will get a reliable Air Niugini staff that will help out or arrange for a courtesy service to rest at a hotel under the airline’s expense when a flight is cancelled. If you don’t ask, they are likely to ignore you. You can no longer expect to be at work on time on Monday morning, say in Madang, after being in Port Moresby for the weekend. When you have an Air Niugini ticket that says you will board a flight to Madang at 5.45am on Monday from Port Moresby, and you think you will be on time for work after the one-hour flight on a F100, don’t bet on it. Please do factor in and expect abrupt cancellations and delays as happened on Monday. As it monopolises the major routes in the country, the airline appears unperturbed by the damage it is causing to the economy and the travelling public. What is happening now is unacceptable. It is affecting people across the spectrum in private and public sectors and the community at large. People are spending their hard-earned money on airline tickets, cargo services on one of the world’s most expensive airfare structure with some of the world’s most strict conditions attached to them, and they deserve better than what they are being put through now. Those of us who have travelled around the world on some of the overseas airlines can compare that services of Air Niugini and frankly say that apart from the clean safety record, PNG’s national flag carrier continues be one of the most expensive and unreliable airlines around. Former Air Niugini pilot, Capt James Makop made some startling observations of one aspect of the national airline’s management style in a Letter to the Editor published by The National yesterday. Capt Makop, who is now flying a Boeing 747-400 for a Chinese airliner, was concerned with the lack of timely replacement of leased aircraft by Air Niugini. “It is absolutely amazing how the management of Air Niugini, from past to present, have appeared oblivious to the need to arrange timely aircraft replacement for incumbent leased aircraft prior to the expiry pf the Boeing 767 aircraft,” he wrote. “For the management not to address the obvious, denotes a level of incompetence that is all the more intolerable given that such situations occurred on numerous occasions in the past. “The public needs to be aware that the procurement of suitable replacement aircraft takes time given that airplanes are not like cars in a sales yard just waiting for clients to come along and buy them.” Capt Makop goes on to say that “it is high time knowledgeable people in the industry are given the rein of running the airline both at the management and at board level. “The total breakdown today speaks volume of the level of sheer incompetence and the shareholders, who happen to be the travelling public, should not have to put up with this affront,” Capt Makop wrote. One can only hope there is no one out there who is planning to organise the public for a class action against Air Niugini for damages and losses caused by the abrupt cancellation and rescheduling of flights nationwide at present.
|
||
| Previous | Back to top | Next | |
|
|||
