Training to prepare pilots

 By GYNNIE KERO

AIRLINES PNG says its pilots will undergo training next month in preparation for handling the French-Italian ATR- 72 model planes arriving later this year.

Chief commercial officer Paul Abbot was responding to The National in relation to a similar aircraft that went down in Taiwan earlier this month, killing 31 people.

“We have no concerns regarding the ATR aircraft which we have on order,” he said.

“Our pilot training commences next month and we are confident that the crew required will be trained and more than capable of handling the ATR when it arrives.” Abbott had said APNG would get six of this aircraft on lease arrangements. 

The first was expected to arrive in the country in September, direct from the factory in Toulouse, France.

“Initially we (APNG) plan to operate the new aircraft to as many of our existing ports as possible in order to introduce the new aircraft to our customers throughout PNG,” Abbot said.

“The ATR-72 aircraft a very different from the DHC-8 aircraft the airline presently operates. 

“While they still have the same great capability to operate into the short and often unsealed aerodromes that characterise many of the airports in PNG, they can 

carry twice as many passengers, and more than twice the amount of freight.”

ATR has sold more nearly 1,500 aircraft and has more than 180 operators in more than 90 countries.