Over K800mil lost in 2yrs

By GLORIA BAUAI
AIR Niugini chief executive officer (CEO) Bruce Alabaster says the company lost about K400 million annually over the last two years, mostly due to travel restrictions.
He said the company however managed that loss through cost control and was profitable last year.
“In fact, we we’re probably one of the very few airlines in the world to be profitable and we’re expecting a better profit this year,” he said.
Alabaster relayed this when meeting with the Lae business community on Wednesday night.
The opportunity organised by the Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry allowed the parties to address challenges with air travel, especially during the period of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Alabaster said local airport redevelopments and Covid-19 were the main contributors to majority of the flight disruptions over the last few months.
He said as international boundaries opened up and airport infrastructure developments were being finalised, the airline had also re-strategised with flights schedules and relatively new fleets to provide an efficient service.
He said Air Niugini had resumed four flights a week to Singapore, three flights into the Philippines, several flights a week to Brisbane, three overnights to Cairns and a weekly flight to Sydney.
Alabaster said the airline was considering getting back into sectors where they had not operated for a while, such as Honiara in the Solomon Islands and Port Villa in Vanuatu.