Papua New Guinea’s national airline flight from Port Moresby to Cairns today was operated by an all female Air Niugini crew in recognition of International Women’s Day.

With the day’s theme of “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress”, the national airline continues its progress in equal participation for all women within the organisation, whether it be on the ground or in the sky.

The flight was under the command of Captain Beverly Pakii (inset) with First Officer Chantilly Padigaga. and assisted in the cabin by Jarmilah Mileng, Mimijanna Mabone and Magdalene Lapana.

In January, Captain Pakii became the first female pilot in Air Niugini and Papua New Guinea to captain a jet aircraft after attaining her command on a Fokker jet aircraft.

With this achievement, it enabled her to command or captain flights on the Air Niugini domestic and international network that are operated by Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 aircraft.

Her first commercial flight was on January 4 this year on a Fokker 100 aircraft flight from Port Moresby to Lae and return.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Standing in the middle of the countryside, the sound of heavy gunfire is loud and the shouts of the people in rural Wapenamanda in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province are fearful.

Police and the PNG Defence Force officers are crouched hidden on the hillside, safeties off their firearms, silently watching the melee below in Warumanda village.

The echo of the military grade Mac 58 and self-loading rifle (SLR) comes from the tribal fight; bullets aimed at the security officers miss but hit close to their feet.

A burst of machinegun fire is heard.

Provincial Police Commander Superintendent George Kakas stands stoic in the thick of things.

He said his men were outnumbered and outgunned.

“We estimate about 500 men involved in this tribal fight, bullets are coming at us but instead they whiz past us and we can only take fire as we decide our next move,” he said.

The fighting is between Sikin and the Itiokons.

‘Explosion’ of fighting
However, the inclusion of other tribes into both tribes has seen an “explosion of all-out fighting”, Commander Kakas said.

Joining Sikin tribe are the Kaekins, and other tribes from Tsak LLG, Wabag and Kompiam-Ambum and Mupapalu, while the Itiokons include the Nenein tribe.

“I advised Air Niugini to cancel its current flight because of the intense fighting which was taking place right under its flight path towards its descent into Wapenamanda Airport,” Commander Kakas said.

“I will advise them when the situation is conducive later this week.

“We tried to cross over the only bridge over the Lai river to Warumanda village — where the destruction was taking place — and could not cross over because the metal decking has been were removed, preventing us from crossing.

“We exchanged shots with the tribesmen, luckily none of my security force members were harmed in the exchanged,” he said.

“I have now reorganised my men to remain static at strategic sites to prevent the marauding tribesmen to advance further.

‘I need men .. . support’
“I need men, I need firepower and I need the support,” he says.

“Homes are burning and lives lost, 10 people have died with countless others left without a home and without any hope of having one in the coming days.”

“Three bodies were brought out of the battleground, 8 others unaccounted for, and more than 10 taken to hospital by security forces.”

On Tuesday afternoon, security personnel were shot at and a shootout ensued with the personnel seeking higher ground.

Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas said bluntly in Parliament last week that both sides of the House should stop with the projects and concentrate on fixing law and order.

“We cannot keep on saying that everything is okay.

“We need to think beyond our self-interest and start addressing the law and order issues in the country”.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama today condemned a visiting Papua New Guinean member of Parliament for “mocking” the autonomous region’s independence aspirations during a drunken exchange in Buka last week, saying that he must “atone for his blunder”.

A video of Ijivitari MP David Arore allegedly abusing security guards and airport staff while getting ready to board a plane out of Buka last Friday has stirred wide condemnation by national and Bougainville leaders.

“Let us take this criticism in our stride and use this as motivation to continue to develop and progress,” President Toroama said in a statement, adding that sovereignty was “rightfully ours to claim”.

“We are a people who have withstood tougher challenges than the words of a drunken man,” he said.

Arore’s visit to Bougainville was part of a delegation led by the Minister for Bougainville Affairs, Mannaseh Makiba. The visit was to help national MPs better understand the autonomous arrangements on Bougainville and meet local leaders and the people.

Toroama said the trip was a success but strongly criticised the behaviour of MP Arore, saying he did not have the “right to use it to insult our leaders and our people”.

“Sovereignty is rightfully ours to claim, we have paid for it with the unfair exploitation of our resources, our lives and the blood of the people who sacrificed their lives fighting for their freedom in an unjust war,” President Toroama said, referring to the now-closed rich Panguna copper mine and the decade-long civil war over the exploitation and environmental degradation.

Unfair comparison
It was unfair for Arore to even compare infrastructure development on Bougainville to that of the rest of the country because Bougainville was a post-conflict region that was only now “steadily gaining traction on development and peace”.

“Bougainville bankrolled PNG’s independence and set the very foundation for every form of development in this country,” President Toroama said.

“Subsequently, we had a war waged on our people by the very same government we built.

“You [Arore] can mock our shortcomings in development but do not mock the sanctity of our aspirations to be an independent nation.”

President Toroama thanked Bougainvilleans who witnessed Arore’s “tirade of insults” directed at the Air Niugini and National Airports Corporation (NAC) staff for “maintaining civility”.

“In this respect we proved that despite his inebriated state and the discourteous behaviour our people still showed respect for the office that he occupies as a national leader.”

But President Toroama called for an investigation, saying Arore “understands our Melanesian traditions” and he was “stlll subservient to the law”.

Minister apologises
A PNG Post-Courier report by Gorethy Kenneth and Miriam Zarriga said the delegation leader, Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makibe, had apologised for the behaviour of MP Arore.

“We left in good note. However, such behaviour by an MP is wrong and unacceptable,” Makiba said.

“We will not allow the unfortunate incident to deter the progress we have made and good working relationship we have with Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) leadership and people.

“We were not aware of this incident until now. Generally, our visit was well appreciated by ABG.

“I apologise for Mr Arore’s behaviour.”

According to reports, Arore insinuated that Bougainville’s independence was “not negotiable”, among other derogative comments he made at that time.

Arore told the Post-Courier he would not apologise as what he had said was not intended to upset Bougainville, its people and the leadership.

“I will not apologise. I have nothing to apologise for because I did not say something wrong, I did not abuse anyone and there was no commotion,” Arore claimed.

“All I said was, ‘Yumi laik kisim independence (if we want independence), yumi stretim balus na stretim hausik (we must fix our airport and our hospital)’.

“I said these same sentiments in Manus, where I said to the leaders there, ‘Manus has a big and very good airport but the town is in shambles’.

“I think we have made this very minor issue a very big one.”

‘We’ll have him arrested’
Police Commissioner David Manning said the incident of a MP allegedly drunk and disorderly on a flight would be investigated with him waiting on NAC and Air Niugini for a report and complaint.

“We will have him arrested. We are awaiting the NAC and Air Niugini,” he said.

Civil Aviation Minister Walter Schnaubelt said: “He (Arore) was also allowed to board the plane drunk, which is a security breach.

“So (we are) getting a report from our team on the ground so further preventative action can be taken. This sort of behaviour must not be tolerated, and we leaders must lead by example at all times.”

MP Arore is a member of PNG’s parliamentary law and order committee. The Ijivitari Open electorate is in Oro province.

In 2019, a non-binding independence referendum was held in Bougainville with 98.31 percent of voters supporting independence from Papua New Guinea.

Report compiled from Bougainville News and the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s local airlines Air Niugini and PNG Air may be back flying again this weekend.

But passengers affected by the “no lift off” were incensed at the cancellations of their flights this week with calls by citizens that this should not happen again when many found themselves stranded at airports across the country.

Government finally intervened and with the release of foreign exchange by the Central Bank, aviation gasoline supplier Puma Energy has promised to fuel the planes.

All domestic flights were grounded on Thursday after Puma said it did not have the US dollars to buy and supply Avgas.

Prime Minister James Marape responded to the saga — in a statement after almost an entire day — by setting up a special team to meet Puma and sort out the mess.

“I will also set up a State team to look deeper into this saga between the Central Bank and Puma,” Marape said.

Many angry passengers called Prime Minister Marape and his government to intervene and address what is the second instance of flight cancellations due to fuel shortages following lack of foreign currency.

‘Sad reflection’ on economy
Simdei Kamgu, a passenger who was turned away, said the situation was a “sad reflection of the poor state of PNG’s economy” and urged Marape to come forward with a solution as the lives of thousands of domestic travelers across the country were affected by the indefinite flight cancellations.

Another disappointed customer, Andrew Bepi, who had spent more than K6000 on tickets for himself and five family members travelling to Western Highlands Province, appealed to the government to find solutions.

“Feel sorry for us the people, it is not our fault. We are traveling for business and other work and we need the government and airline operators to come out and explain to us why and how long the delay will go on for,” said Bepi.

People confirmed to fly domestic routes yesterday met with disappointment when they fronted up at airports only to find out that all flights were cancelled indefinitely.

However, by 4pm Thursday, Puma Energy country general manager Hulala Tokome confirmed that Puma Energy had lifted their fuel restrictions to Air Niugini and would supply Jet A1 to the airline after a temporary approval of their FX order were given to them by their FX supplier BSP Financial Group and ANZ.

Bank of PNG acting governor Benny Popoitai said BPNG supplied Foreign Exchange Currency (FX) to commercial banks and Puma Energy was not a client of BPNG but a client of commercial banks.

Orders from Central Bank
Despite this claim by the Central Bank, the Post-Courier understands that commercial banks get their orders of FX from the Central Bank and if the commercial banks cannot supply FX release to their clients, then this means that the Central Bank cannot or is holding back on FX orders put in by commercial banks on behalf of their clients.

In a public notice, Air Niugini advised that due to issues with Puma Energy accessing US dollars, Puma had decided to suspend the supply of Jet A1 fuel within PNG, including to Air Niugini and all other airlines effective yesterday.

Consequently, the national flag carrier announced the cancellation of all domestic flights starting on Thursday until restrictions were confirmed removed late in the afternoon.

This is the second time this incident has hit the nation within months and those stranded at the Jackson’s Airport in Port Moresby on Thursday demanded the government to urgently resolve the crippling issue of inaccessibility to foreign currency with some concerned it will continue to occur despite the short term reprieve.

Among those stranded were those who had flown in from other provinces on connecting flights, and are now worried about where they will be lodged for the night until the matter of fuel supply and foreign currency is resolved between BPNG and Puma Energy.

Claudia Tally and Maxine Kamus are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Air travellers were left stranded and fuming country-wide as airlines Air Niugini and PNG Air hit a rough patch in operations due to wet weather and a large number of their key staff falling sick and unable to be at work.

Flight cancellations were the order of the day yesterday at many airports with passenger backlogs and frustrations growing.

Air Niugini, especially, has had flight cancellations since last November.

The airline has issued an apology saying wet weather conditions and staff absenteeism had caused the situation.

In a media release, both airlines apologised for a number of flights in recent days which have been disrupted due to a much higher number of crew than usual falling sick, as well as the current bad weather conditions across the country impacting on the airlines’ operations.

Both airlines say they are doing everything they can to manage the situation, but will not compromise safety operations.

Stranded passengers had to rebook flights and spend extra money for accommodation and transport.

Backlog mostly tertiary students
Most on the backlog of passengers are tertiary students and parents who have been asked to rebook flights for four to five days as of last Wednesday.

While the airlines have not publicly stated if staff were infected with covid-19, reliable sources from within companies have informed the Post-Courier that a majority of those sick and absent from work were infected with the virus.

They included aircraft engineers, high-end ground staff, pilots, cabin crews and protocol staff.

One of the stranded passengers from Lae, former EMTV senior journalist Scott Waide took to social media to comment on the crisis, which attracted a lot of responses and complaints from passengers who were in a similar situation.

They describing the customer service by the airlines as poor.

Waide was asked to rebook his flight more than once and finally made it into Port Moresby late yesterday evening.

An unfortunate incident happened at Nadzab Airport in Lae yesterday when an airline staff member allegedly insulted a female passenger.

Staff member ‘tears up’ boarding passes
Josephine Kawage claimed the staff member tore up her and her child’s boarding passes.

Kawage said in a video recording that they had been stranded for four days and were finally put on the flight yesterday. However, the check-in officer was only able to produce two boarding passes for Kawage and her son.

She said that she was humiliated when she asked for the boarding passes for her other family members.

A disappointed husband, Captain Henry Nilkare from the North Coast Aviation, condemned the alleged actions of the airline staff member when he spoke to Post-Courier last night.

He said he would take the matter up with Air Niugini to have the officer penalised.

“I do work in the airline industry and understand the nature of his job at situations like this, but his actions were uncalled for and no passenger, or any woman with an infant, should be treated as such in front of many people,” he said.

“That is a bad image for Air Niugini and I do not wish to see this happen to any other passengers.

“If he can do this to my wife and child, who knows how many people he may have treated badly.”

Captain Nilkare said he would be flying to Lae himself to pick up his family today.

Melisha Yafoi is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As the delta variant of covid-19 spreads to more than 96 countries, Papua New Guinea has put in tighter measures that include all incoming passengers and crew to be vaccinated before boarding any international flight entering the country.

Police Commissioner David Manning, who is also Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response, released the new control measures yesterday.

Under the updated measures, all incoming passengers and crew should be vaccinated before boarding an international flight coming into PNG.

And the mandatory quarantine period has been extended to 21 days for all incoming travellers, with covid-19 tests to be undertaken on the first, seventh and final day of quarantine.

Scheduled flights can continue as normal, while unscheduled flights require approval from the Controller.

Manning said the new measures were aimed at preventing the spread of the covid-19 delta mutation.

PNG is struggling with widespread community transmission of the virus, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases and rising.

‘Serious threat’
“The delta strain of covid-19 poses a serious threat to our country, and we will do everything we can to prevent or delay its arrival and spread,” Manning said.

Institute of the National Affairs executive director Paul Barker has welcomed the new measures, saying that the restrictions on international flights are really wise — but they also needs to apply to the West Papua border with Indonesia.

“The variant is dominant in India and has become dominant in a short time in Fiji, UK, and South Africa, and is spreading fast in US, and lately has slipped into UK,” he said.

“It’s 60 percent more infectious than the UK variant, which was 60 percent more infectious than the original virus we have here.”

“It’s good to keep it out as long as we can, but it’s already spreading fast in Indonesia, so it will be challenging.”

Overseas destinations
Meanwhile, Air Niugini has also released a statement advising passengers on Air Niugini international flights departing from overseas destinations on or after Friday, July 2, 2021, and entering PNG, must now :

• Be fully vaccinated against covid-19, and provide evidence in the form of a vaccination certificate at check-in;
• Quarantine for 21 days on arrival in PNG at the individual’s expense;
• All previous approvals for home quarantine, or shorter quarantine period, have been revoked by the Controller; and
• All previous Controller approvals for a person to enter PNG as required under previous Measure 2 remain effective, but are now subject to the new direction.

There are no changes to the requirements for international passengers departing from PNG.

Air Niugini continues to operate six flights a week to Brisbane, one flight to Sydney, four flights per week to Singapore, and twice weekly flights each to Manila and Hong Kong.

Rebecca Kuku is a senior journalist with the PNG Post-Courier. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Yesterday in Papua New Guinea, our Port Moresby-Madang flight got cancelled.

Minutes earlier, as we sat in the departure lounge, I was so confident.

No there was no doubt… Cancel that. I wasn’t even thinking about a cancellation.

In my universe, a cancellation was not part of the equation.

I was going to Madang on PX 112.

Seconds before the the announcement began with “This is an advice to passengers traveling to Madang on PX 112…” came on, I had already started packing my Macbook and my phone. (Because I’m psychic like that.)

Then the message continued: “…this flight has been cancelled.” (Not so psychic, huh?)

My mood was audibly echoed by dozens of people in the departure lounge. “Another TANGFU!” someone said beside me. (Note to self: Google TANGFU).

So they said over the PA system, in so many words, go to the PX customer services counter to find out when your flight will take off – and in the same breath, indicating that it sure as hell wasn’t going to be today.

I walked out with my partner in crime in tow and my very dirty tactical backpack slug over my shoulder. Within seconds of stepping into the security checking area, a small security guard yelled from across the room for us to go through the other door.

His total religious compliance with covid-19 regulations meant that half his face was covered with a face mask making his ability to effectively communicate to customers extremely difficult. All I could make out was that he didn’t want us there.

“Oi! Na yu toktok isi!” I yelled back. He didn’t stop, he kept going on until someone yelled back at him.

We found our way out. PX customer service said the flight was rescheduled to early morning the next day. Wake up at 4am, check in at 5am. They also advised that there would be no accommodation for outbound passengers from Port Moresby.

AAAAAGH! we don’t live here and we checked out 4 hours ago from where we were!

So we ended up looking for accommodation near the airport. But the drama didn’t end there.

In my wisdom, I booked our accommodation online, got the dates wrong and booked for February 11 instead of January 28.

Long story short, I got scolded by my bestie who said, very sternly, “If we travel again, I will make travel arrangements, not you.”

Don’t blame me, blame the security guard and PX.

So, 4am in the morning we are there. Check in opens a bit late. It is manageable. No drama.

And we finally got on the flight. I mean, we are on board!!

Phew!

Editor’s note: Tang Fu is an “explosive” expression linked to the Chinese inventor and naval caption who invented a superior form of exploding rocket about 1000 AD which was said to be a forerunner of firearms. However, in the PNG context it means something else. Bob Howarth comments: “For those who never experienced it .. Tangfu … typical air nui gini f*** up!”

Asia Pacific Report republishes articles from Lae-based Papua New Guinean television journalist Scott Waide’s blog, My Land, My Country, with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for State Enterprises Sasindran Muthuvel has reassured the nation that Air Niugini is taking all necessary steps to protect the country against the spread of coronavirus, reports EMTV News.

“The airline has instituted a wide range of measures to minimise the risk to the nation, and is constantly monitoring international developments to make sure its precautions are up to date and effective,” he said yesterday.

“The Ministry of State Enterprises, Kumul Consolidated Holdings and Air Niugini are liaising with other departments and agencies in the Marape Government’s fight against coronavirus (the key agency is the National Department of Health).

“This is a whole-of-government exercise, and we are sparing no effort or expense to ensure the safety of Papua New Guineans.”

While the government was trying to protect the commercial interests of Air Niugini, public safety is the paramount consideration.

The stopping or limitating of some flights and compliance with other international action was all part of putting people first, he said.

“The Marape government, KCH and Air Niugini will not compromise public, passenger and employee safety,” minister Muthuvel said.

Air Niugini managing director Alan Milne said the airline is constantly in touch with other national agencies, and is continuously carrying out its own risk assessments to protect passengers and staff.

“If unacceptable risks are identified, we will immediately take the necessary action,” he said.

“We are also monitoring international requirements, which are often difficult and complex, and if necessary Air Niugini will modify its procedures accordingly to ensure compliance.

“Air Niugini will continue to be vigilant in the interest of public safety.”

Republished in partnership with EMTV News.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz