Link PNG resumes flights to Mendi

THE Mendi Airport will soon be bustling with activity as commercial flights once more grace the tarmac and passengers enter and exit the terminal gates.
The terminal was closed last October due to election-related violence, resulting in damages done to the building and offices of airliners operating at the airport.
This also resulted in commercial airliner, Link PNG, suspending its flights to Mendi until the situation had been handled.
This week, Link PNG, a subsidiary of national carrier, Air Niugini Ltd, has announced its resumption of flights to Mendi.
Link PNG General Manager, Bruce Alabaster, said while the suspension of flights and closure of terminal facilities were unfortunate,
Link PNG was pleased to be operating the route again.
Link PNG operates direct services twice a week from Port Moresby to Mendi, every Sunday and Thursday.
The flight departs Port Moresby at 11.20am and arrives in Mendi at 12.50pm.
Alabaster said while they were always looking to expand the number of flights per week to all the airports, at present twice weekly was the appropriate frequency for this route, when taking into account the number of passengers averaged between these two airports.
Link PNG operates the DHC- 8-202 series aircraft between Port Moresby and Mendi, which is the optimum aircraft for this airport.
The airline’s sales office in Mendi was also re-opened yesterday.
Since the suspension of commercial flights into the province, only chartered flights from other airliners operated the route.