What Air Niugini is doing to help mitigate the risks of the spread of Corona virus
Whilst PNG has fortunately not had any reported cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19), as a valued and loyal customer, Air Niugini has stepped up precautionary measures on the evolving situation to ensure passengers who travel with us are protected.
The health and safety of the people of Papua New Guinea, our passengers and crew are always our absolute priority. Air Niugini has always been proud of the steps we take every day to ensure our processes are world’s best in protecting the health and safety of our passengers and staff.
Managing Director, Alan Milne
The World Health Organisation has advised that there is extremely low risk of cross-transmission between passengers and crew, and that to date there has been no confirmed inflight transmission of COVID-19 anywhere in the world. Despite that, Air Niugini has taken a number of steps to enhance protection on all its flights and reduce any risks of COVID-19 that maybe spread by travellers.
To date Air Niugini is already ensuring our aircraft are sprayed with hospital type disinfectant every night they are at a maintenance base, including Port Moresby, and on every transit through Port Moresby which includes the use of an antibacterial, antimicrobial cleaning product that reduces the risk of harmful viruses, moulds, fungus, algae and any other possible harmful pathogenic bacteria. We are also ensuring that all our offices where we interact with you, our customers, such as sales outlets, are sprayed with this disinfectant every night.
Mr Milne said
All Air Niugini Boeing and Fokker jet aircraft are fitted with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, which perform similarly to those used to keep the air clean in hospital operating rooms. This means the air quality on the aircraft is essentially sterile and particle-free.
We are also replacing head rest covers every time an aircraft transits through Port Moresby, removing in-flight magazines from all our aircraft, headsets, blankets and headrests off all seats prior to cleaning to reduce any risk of cross-transmission, and replacing earpiece covers on all distributed headsets after every flight whenever their sealed container has been opened and ensuring the in-flight blankets are cleaned using industrial laundry practises.
All Air Niugini flights are equipped with hand sanitiser and face masks, and if any guest presents as unwell or with flu-like symptoms on one of our flights, they’ll be provided with a face mask and hand sanitiser, and where possible, moved away from other passengers.
Mr Milne said Air Niugini has also reduced and cancelled flights voluntarily for those locations where the infection rates were previously increasing rapidly such as Asia, and will continue to do so to all locations showing signs of significant spread.
We are ensuring that at all international departure airports with increased levels of infection that enhanced screening processes are in place and being implemented to reduce any chance of us uplifting passengers to PNG who may be showing symptoms of COVID-19. Air Niugini also provides its staff who are interacting with the public, including cabin crew and check-in officers, with personal protective equipment appropriate to the risk level for their role and location.
Milne
Air Niugini senior leaders are meeting regularly to discuss the ongoing response and ensure they have the latest information from health authorities. The staff are ready and on standby to support passengers who need to change their travel due to COVID-19.
While the airline acknowledges that this is a rapidly evolving situation, Air Niugini already has well developed plans ready to roll-out should there be any reported cases of COVID-19 in PNG. We acknowledge some of these may mean your travel experience seems different from normal, these would be implemented to minimise any chances of domestic transmission of COVID-19 within PNG, and to ensure your and our staffs’ safety on all our domestic flights.
Air Niugini is also waiving change fees for eligible guests. Air Niugini has updated its booking policy for passengers with international bookings that wish to change their travel due to COVID-19. If you need to make a change to your booking, there are alternative options available to you and we request you contact your travel agent, or the Air Niugini call centre to discuss these.
We are aware of rumours out there regarding change of travel restrictions around the world and other factors affecting travel. Please continue to visit Air Niugini’s Facebook page to ensure you have the correct and most up to date travel updates.
Thank you for your continuous support towards Air Niugini and your trust that we are doing everything during this challenging time to ensure the best interests of the people of PNG, as well as your and our staffs’ well-being is our top priority.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Milne,
Managing Director, Air Niugini
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