Air Niugini eyes Brazil for re-fleet

Business

AIR Niugini is considering Brazilian airline company, Embraer, for aircraft, as part of its re-fleeting exercise.
Embraer’s Asia Pacific vice-president Raul Villaron said the company had an annual revenue of US$5billion (about K17 billion) and a backlog of US$17.5 billion (K60.36 billion).
“We have more than 100 customers in 50 different countries,” he said.
“The closest neighbour that we supply these aircrafts are Australia and Kiribati.
“The E195-E2 is the most environmentally friendly aircraft in its class with a 25 per cent lower fuel burn than previous generation aircraft.
It also has the lowest levels of external noise and longest maintenance intervals in the single-aisle jet category.”
Air Niugini chief executive officer Bruce Alabaster said: “For Papua New Guinea, this would be a step forward, to get through the process.
Embraer’s aircrafts are ones that we are looking at, and that process is ongoing.
“It is a positive step forward.
“It will be a massive increase in our aircrafts to service the domestic market as well as the regional routes across the Pacific and others. It brings carbon savings as well.”
The Embraer’s E195-E2 is configured with 116 seats and last made an appearance in July 2019, and since then, the aircraft type has entered service with airlines such as KLM and Helvetic Airways in Europe and Porter Airlines based in Canada.
The E195-E2 is one of a number of aircraft options that Air Niugini is considering as potential replacements for the Fokker fleet as part of its narrow-body regional jet re-fleeting project.