Two planes lost

It is a pity that Air Niugini has lost two aircraft this year, first was a Dash 7 burnt in Mendi and this recent tragic accident in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The losses have cost Air Niugini and its subsidiary PNG Air (Dash 8) millions of kina.
I hope these losses will not make Air Niugini hike its airfares to help it recover costs.
The first incident is politically related, but what irks some of us is why Air Niugin flies its big Boeing 737 passenger jet to some far-off island state in the Pacific.
A Boeing 737-800 series aircraft costs about US$60 million (K170mil) and this is a huge loss to the airline. I hope the Air Niugini financial and investment analysts took into account the risks involved, including the length of the runway and the passenger traffic when the decision was made to fly to the Federated States of Micronesia.
In your report (Oct 1), you mentioned that there were only 35 passengers and 12 crew members on board. If that is an indication of the average number of passengers per flight, then this route should not have been recommended in the first place.

Kelly Matoli , Goroka