Air Niugini
Papua New Guinea · NUIGINI · Active
Airline Identity
History
Air Niugini was established in November 1973, ahead of Papua New Guinea's 1975 independence, initially with the PNG government holding 60% and Australian carriers Ansett, Qantas and TAA holding the remainder; the government acquired full ownership by 1980. The airline transitioned from Boeing 707s to Airbus A300 widebodies in 1984 and later added Boeing 767s in 2002. It weathered periods of instability including the Bougainville crisis and the 1994 Rabaul volcanic eruption, restructured its finances in the early 2000s, and created a dedicated regional subsidiary, Link PNG, in 2014 to operate its Dash 8 turboprop network. In September 2018 its Flight PX73 crashed into a lagoon near Chuuk, Micronesia, resulting in one fatality.
Current Operations
Air Niugini, Papua New Guinea's wholly government-owned flag carrier, serves around 22 domestic and 8 international destinations from its Port Moresby (Jacksons International Airport) hub. Its fleet mixes Boeing 767-300ERs and Fokker 70/100 jets with Dash 8-Q200/Q300 turboprops operated by its Link PNG subsidiary, and, since 2023, a wet-leased Boeing 737-200 from Ukraine's SkyUp Airlines. The airline has ordered six Airbus A220-100s (with options for further A220s) to modernize its fleet. It maintains a long-standing seat-blocking arrangement with Qantas on Port Moresby-Australia routes but is not a member of any global alliance.
Last verified 2026-09-02· Source: airline public disclosures, company press releases & aviation-industry reporting.