Air Niugini initiates to increase passenger volume

National

AIR Niugini is in the process of increasing the volume of passengers that travel to PNG, with several progressive initiatives, according to Air Niugini chief executive officer Simon Foo.
PNG has a comparatively low volume of passengers that travel through Jackson International Airport as compared to other larger airports globally, Foo said.
Air Niugini aims to increase the volume through the development of infrastructure and its expansion strategy in becoming the regional hub for the Pacific.
Foo said this while commenting on how the Government was aiding in the increase of volume by opening new markets globally through international agreements.
“The Government recently concluded an air service agreement between the government and China and the Prime Minister was up there to make that announcement that allows us to operate five times a week between Port Moresby and Shanghai,” he said.
“We will operate those flights when it is commercially feasible to operate those flights.
“But at the moment in conjunction with the Tourism Promotion Authority we are looking at doing some test tourism flights like what we did with FSM (Federated States of Micronesia) when we went there about a month ago.
“As a small business we have to test the market first and we look like we will be doing some test flights in February to tie in with the Chinese New Year and after we see how the flights go, we will make some announcements about commercial flights.
We are confident that the flights will work out.”
The Government’s decision to relax visa provisions would enable greater travel which would be of benefit to the country according to Foo.
“I believe that the Government has just relaxed some the visa provisions and I see that as a very positive sign by the Government and we are very keen to see that tourism works for this country,” he said.