APNG to hike investment

 By GYNNIE KERO

AIRLINES PNG (APNG) is investing heavily in safety, engineering, booking systems and customer services to support the increase in direct link services, chief executive Muralee Siva says.

He said this yesterday following APNG’srecent announcements of direct route services linking Lae and Popondetta and Port Moresby and Tari.

While no investment figures were mentioned, Muralee says “APNG has introduced new services to capitalise on the natural travel flows within the country”.

He said the company sees great opportunities in the domestic market in the long term, particularly with first LNG sales next year.

“We realised the growth of domestic market in PNG, economy improving, we have huge role to play … giving an option to people to travel directly.

“We (APNG) will continue to also pursue additional opportunities through the year. which could also allow us to further increase capacity in the second-half of the year”, Muralee said.

APNG operates 350 flights every week across the country on regular passenger transport services and around 200 a week to support charter customers.

“The government is keen to deliver services to regional destination. We have a huge role to play to support that strategy”, he said.

APNG has increased its services to almost all the ports except Vanimo, Manus and Buka.

“APNG is 100% focused on supporting the domestic market.

“This year we will be adding two additional Dash8 aircraft to our fleet … one this week and another in July.

“Our RPT traffic is forecast to grow primarily on the new routes being added plus the changes to existing route, which have been designed to improve connections, offer more options to people and reduce waiting time for flights.”