PX grounds Boeing 767s for repair work

By PETER ESILA
ONE of Air Niugini’s wide-body aircraft used for international flights is undergoing a scheduled maintenance, causing disruptions to the airline’s international schedule, says acting chief executive officer Gary Seddon.
“Our international services rely heavily on our larger wide-body aircraft, comprising two Boeing 767-300ER, (one of which is) currently undergoing scheduled heavy maintenance,” he said.
“It is why we have a wet lease aircraft from Omni Air International (OAI), from the United States.”
Last week the OAI aircraft, also a Boeing-767, had a serviceability issue.
“The OAI aircraft was unserviceable in Port Moresby and our own aircraft was being repaired in Brisbane. Both unscheduled maintenance instances required the grounding of aircraft to effect the repairs. Both were necessary to ensure the safety of our passengers and crew.
“Once repairs were made and certified, the aircraft were placed back in to service. We did suffer some disruption to our international schedule as a result of necessary maintenance.
“However, we did have the Singapore-Port Moresby services last week. We also operated one service with our smaller Boeing 737-800.”
He said a flight to Hong Kong was cancelled on Sunday night due to aircraft serviceability. But passengers were accommodated on the next available service yesterday.
“Air Niugini continues to take an approach that will not compromise the safety of passengers and crew,” he said.
“And though we apologise sincerely for any disruption to travel plans, we will always place the highest priority on the safe operation of our aircraft – and that compliance extends to wet lease arrangements.”
Seddon said Air Niugini operations continued last week, despite the civil unrest.
“We did have a number of crew and ground support staff unable to come to work due to the issues in Port Moresby. This inevitably caused delays and disruptions to both domestic and international flights,” he said.