Air Niugini targets Lion Air to provide checks

By PETER ESILA
LION Air operating out of Brisbane, Australia, will be Air Niugini’s next target to have its heavy maintenance checks done in PNG, Air Niugini managing director Alan Milne says.
He said during the inaugural Innovation PNG summit in Port Moresby on Friday that following the completion of its first heavy maintenance checks commercial airline, the Solomons Air Dash 8 in September, word had gone out of PNG that it wants to be the hub of C-Check (heavy maintenance) in the region.
“85 per cent of the world Fokker jet operations is in the region, in Australia and PNG,” Milne said.
“(They) operate about 54 of those aeroplanes, they currently send them to London to have their heavy maintenance checks done.
“Once we’ve got Lions, then the next operator to be here will, of course, be Qantas.
“That will be a pretty proud moment for Air Niugini to start rolling our customer airline back to back, create revenue, employment opportunity, and talking to kids in school in a career in aircraft maintenance.
“This is where I started and it is a fantastic career.”