Relief for travellers from Chimbu

 THE people of Chimbu will have much to cheer about and celebrate this Christmas following the decision by Air Niugini to resume flights to Kundiawa this month.

It has been two-and-a-half years since the national airline ceased operations to the province and it is envisaged that a capacity crowd will wel­come the first flight on Saturday.

Air Niugini will operate two flights a week – on Wednesday and Saturday – between Port Moresby and Kundiawa.

In its heyday, Kundiawa airport was one of the busiest in the Highlands region.

It has one of the shortest runways in the country, which prompted legendary Chimbu leader, the late Sir Iambakey Okuk, to spearhead the introduction of the de Havilland Dash 7 aircraft to the Air Niugini fleet in the early 1980s. 

The Dash 7 was a four-engine turbo prop aircraft that had short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities, which was specifically designed for airports like Kundiawa. 

Nonetheless, the Dash 7 era was short-lived as Air Niugini continued to upgrade its fleet and now services the smaller airports with its fleet of modern Dash 8 aircraft.

Undoubtedly, Air Niugini’s decision to resume services to Chimbu will bring much relief to travellers, especially those who commute regularly between Kundiawa and Port Moresby. 

These people will be saving a lot of money and time that have been spent on travelling to Mt Hagen, Goroka or even Lae to catch connecting flights to the nation’s capital.

Air Niugini’s decision to resume flights is commendable but even more so is the fact that the Simbu provincial government has agreed to underwrite the costs of the airline’s operations.

This is because the airline considers the service not commercially viable as it can only uplift limited loads out of Kundiawa because of the way the airport runway is designed. 

“The service therefore is not commercially viable; however, the goodness is that the Simbu provincial government has stepped in to provide an agreed underwriting. Under this arrangement, the provincial government pays for and uses an agreed number of seats per flights throughout the year,” Air Niugini said in a statement.

Chimbu Governor Noah Kool must be commended for playing a key role in this decision, especially to underwrite the airline’s services into Kundiawa. The onus is on the provincial government to ensure that the airline services are maintained and enhanced in the future.

Air Niugini ceased operations in May 2011 because of the lack of perimeter fencing at the airport, which allowed for illegal incursion of the runway by people and animals. The airline considered it unsafe to operate under the situation at that time.

A new perimeter fencing around the airport and the airfield has been built, which has enabled Air Niugini to resume flights into Kundiawa from this Saturday.

The provincial government should take heed of State Enterprises Minister Ben Micah’s advice to allow airline services to resume without disruptions.

“The challenge now is to allow the flights to continue without interruptions and increase frequencies and the uplift of more passengers and freight from Kundiawa to Port Moresby and all other ports throughout the country,” Micah said after a successful meeting with Air Niugini chief executive officer Simon Foo, Kool and Attorney-General Kerenga Kua, who is the MP for Sinasina-Yongumugl.

The provincial government will need to impose tighter security measures around the airport perimeter to prevent people and animals from jumping or cutting through the fence and using the runway as their footpath.

It would pay to engage a professional security firm to patrol the perimeter of the airport day and night.

The onus is on the people, especially those villagers and others who live in the vicinity of the airport, to refrain from damaging the perimeter fencing and using the runway as their shortcut routes to and from the town.

Like other small airports and rural airstrips throughout the country, Kundiawa is prone to such problems that led to Air Niugini’s decision to cease operations in 2011.

The leaders and people of Chimbu would not want that to happen again.