Air Niugini to acquire four aircraft by year’s end: CEO

AIR Niugini will buy four Dash-8 Q400 turboprops and lease two Boeing 737’s to boost its fleet by the end of the year, says acting chief executive officer Gary Seddon.
Seddon said this during the announcement of the National Airline Employees Association (Naea) executives in Port Moresby on Friday.
He said this would reduce the issues with an already exhausted international and domestic flight schedule.
“The four Dash-8 aircraft will be bought from an aviation company in the United States,” he said.
“The aircraft are in operational condition and there is a team in the US right now assessing the documentation for them before Air Niugini can take steps with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Government to bring these aircraft into our fleet.”
Seddon said the two Boeing 737-800 narrow-bodied jets would be given on lease by a regional airline or international leasing airline, for international operations.
The leasing cost for a Boeing 737 jet is about US$80,000 (about K281,600) a month, for a one-year lease.
The airline announced an expected purchase of 13 aircraft in May which would be done over the next five years, including a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.