Air Niugini (PX, Port Moresby) has advised that it has secured an additional B737-800 and DHC-8-Q400 to "improve Air Niugini’s schedule integrity." The news comes after the airline was forced to cancel some flights over the Easter weekend with aircraft unexpectedly pulled out of service for maintenance reasons and is just days out from an announcement regarding an order for 11 new regional aircraft.
"We have accelerated plans to bring on additional fleet," said acting CEO Gary Seddon on the weekend. "This provides more schedule reliability, and greater value to our customers." Seddon says the additional two aircraft will plug a capacity shortfall until the new regional jets, either A220-300s or A220-100s or E195-E2s, start arriving. ch-aviation has contacted Air Niugini for further details of the stopgap aircraft.
Papua New Guinea-based media are reporting that Air Niugini experienced a spate of cancellations late last week, with Seddon telling local outlets that only 12-15 aircraft out of the 24-strong Air Niugini fleet are operational, and that this is making maintaining schedules difficult. He said the need to do heavy maintenance offshore and supply chain issues were contributing factors.
FlightRadar24 ADS-B data indicates it is mostly Air Niugini's regional fleet impacted by maintenance issues. While one of the B767-300ERs (P2-PXW (msn 25365)) did not fly on April 9, the other B767-300ER and sole B737-800 maintained regular operations over the Easter period. The data indicates a DHC-8-300 (P2-ANO (msn 252)) has not flown since April 8, while a DHC-8-300 (P2-ANP (msn 414)) was on the ground on April 9, a DHC-8-Q300 (P2-ANM (msn 523)) has not flown since March 28, and a Q400 (PW-PXR (msn 4184)) has not flown since March 24. Since the beginning of April, one F100 (P2-ANC (msn 11471)) and two F70s (P2-ANR (msn 11578) and P2-ANU (msn 11538)) have also been temporarily withdrawn from service.
