Air Nuigini’s inaugural flight will enhance connectivity at KLIA

Air Nuigini’s inaugural flight will enhance connectivity at KLIA
Text and photos by Anthony Tan

Malaysia is now connected by air with Papua New Guinea (PNG) effective 29 October with the introduction of Air Nuigini’s weekly non-stop flight every Wednesday.

PNG’s national airline, established since 1973, is using the Boeing 757 aircraft with 189-seat configuration for its flight to the KL International Airport (KLIA).
The flight will depart Port Moresby at 3 pm and lands at KLIA at 7.10 pm (Malaysian time). The total flight duration is six hours and 10 minutes.

The same aircraft will have one hour turnaround time before it departs for Port Moresby at 8.10 pm and arrives at 4.20am (PNG time).

In Malaysia Airports Bhd (MAB) managing director Dato’ Seri Bashir Ahmad’s speech, which was read out by KLIA general manager Datuk Murad Azmi, PNG is viewed as a new market with Air Nuigini being the first airline offering connections from the Pacific Islands in the Oceania region to Malaysia.

Air Nuigini will be entitled to MAB’s incentive programme to ensure that its operation is smooth and fruitful. It is hoped that more airlines from the region will fly to Malaysia.

Welcoming the inaugural flight at the KLIA were the PNG High Commissioner His Excellency Veali Vagi, PNG’s minister for state assisting the prime minister on constitutional affair Honourable Philemon Embei and Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Datuk Seri Panglima Lajim Ukim.

Also present were Air Nuigini’s general sales agent, Abadi Aviation Services Sdn Bhd’s chairman NY Lai and general manager Henry Goh, officials from MAB, Malaysia Airlines and Tourism Malaysia.

Air Niugini chief executive officer Wasantha Kumarasiri said the national flag carrier’s service to Kuala Lumpur would help ease capacity shortage experienced in its Port Moresby to Singapore flights. He anticipates the airline to achieve 50% load initially and reach 60% to 70% load factor within two to three months. He expects 20% to 30% of the passengers to use KLIA as a transit point for onwards flight to other Asian destinations (such as India and Sri Lanka) and European cities like Frankfurt and London.

Kumarasiri said the flight from Port Moresby to KLIA had been designed to provide greater connectivity with less than three hours transit time to connect to their onwards destinations to Europe.

The other new Air Nuigini flights that were launched that day were the direct service to Hong Kong every Monday and the additional flight to Honiara in the Solomon Islands on Wednesday. These extra flights will allow passengers to fly from Manila and Hong Kong to Honiara and those from Honiara to Kuala Lumpur.
Presently, the airline operates once a week to Hong Kong via Manila while it flies to Honiara on Friday and Sunday and continue its onward flight to Nadi in Fiji.

With Air Nuigini flying to Malaysia, Tourism Malaysia director of communication division Wan Zawawi Mohamed expects the tourist traffic to open up new destinations between the Pacific Islands and ASEAN. This will be mutually beneficial to both PNG and Malaysia as the gateways of these respective regions.

A cocktail party was held with Malaysia’s travel trade industry the next evening at one of the leading hotels in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate Air Nuigini’s inaugural flight. The guests had the opportunity to sample some of the PNG’s cuisine.