Air Niugini sees progress on turnaround, fleet refresh plans

Air Niugini, Papua New Guinea’s largest airline, is making progress on a financial turnaround plan and is ready to begin a major fleet refresh, a senior executive said. The airline is “now in a position to start looking to the future,” and renewing its fleet will be “our priority over the next 2 to 3 years,” Air Niugini executive manager David Glover said. The carrier will probably concentrate on its widebody and narrowbody aircraft first, then its regional fleet, Glover said. Air Niugini’s only widebodies are 2 Boeing 767-300ERs, and it will likely replace these in 2021 when their leases expire, Glover said. The airline will probably look for used widebodies, such as Airbus A330s or even Boeing 787s, he said. On the narrowbody side, the airline already has four 737 MAXs on order. The first two are scheduled to arrive in the last quarter of 2020. <br/>