Airlines get nod to fly into Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

SOLOMON Airlines will operate its newly acquired Airbus aircraft into Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea as of next month.

This follows the approval from the Papua New Guinea (Civil Aviation Safety Authority-PNG).

Solomon Airlines in a statement yesterday announced that CASA-Papua New Guinea (Civil Aviation Safety Authority-PNG) has approved their FAOC (Foreign Air Operators Certificate) application which now gives an operating license to commence scheduled flights to and from Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby) from Honiara in Solomon Islands.

A spokesperson for the airline indicated that it will now plan to commence services to Port Moresby from 14th November, some 5 weeks away and the team has been instructed to make things happen.

Solomon Airlines also indicated that some adjustments had to be made to its Monday service from Brisbane to Honiara as follows:

Mondays – BNE-HIR 0700-1115 each Monday only from 14th November onwards whilst the return service will now depart Honiara on Tuesday at 1330 arriving into Brisbane at 1545 local time.

Wednesday; Fridays and Sundays will operate to times maintaining the current scheduled operations as follows:

MON/WED/SUN

BNE-HIR 0930-1345

HIR-BNE 1500-1715

“All the above adjustments are being made as this release goes to the press and passengers affected will be contacted to review their travel plans especially on the Monday services.

“The changes each Monday then allows for the PNG flights to operate each Monday with an overnight in Port Moresby and returning on Tuesdays,” the statement said.

Timings are meant to see direct connections to Singapore and Hong Kong but only connecting with the Singapore flights every Tuesday morning to Honiara from Port Moresby as the Air Niugini aircraft remains for Maintenance in Hong Kong thus negating connections from Hong Kong.

The additional benefit will be connections from Port Moresby-PNG through to Port Vila in Vanuatu and Nadi on the same day wherein there have been no flights connecting Port Moresby to Port Vila for many years and this now will be possible by changing aircraft to a connecting Air Pacific aircraft under a Solomon Airlines flight from Honiara to Vila in a seamless immediate connection at Honiara on the same day.

The airline indicated it is mindful of its codeshare agreements with Air Niugini to Fiji but recent talks last weekend indicated that ICCC in PNG has not approved other code-share applications of Air Niugini and the Moresby to Honiara route is not in sight of ICCC approval for code-share to/from Honiara and Port Moresby and this has necessitated entry of its own services to the PNG market.

Furthermore, the spokesman indicated, any plans to operate scheduled services to Fiji and or Vanuatu using its own Airbus A320 have been deferred until further evaluation on these routes are finalized in 2012.

http://www.solomonstarnews.com