What is it like to fly domestically in Papua New Guinea? Well if you remember the days of state run everything and it being done badly, then you will get an idea. Honestly though that does not even scratch the surface.
In essence flying domestically in Papua New Guinea can be defined by a few key points, state monopoly, lack of fuel, overbooking and bribes, lottos bribes.
Tell me about aviation in Papua New Guinea!
OK I am very happy to do so! Basically Papua New Guinea is a country that NEEDS flights as its so spread out that it it is largely the only way to travel, particularly to Port Moresby.
It is also a developing country which means people cannot really afford high fares. You’d think tis would mean the government giving a shit and offering a state run enterprise that was subsidized.
Well they have the state run enterprise, but instead of said enterprise being used in a socialistic way to benefit the people they instead use it to profiteer. Flights in Papua New Guinea are horrendously expensive.
Some people call such state run monopolies socialistic, but this really could not be further from the truth. This is monopolistic capitalistic oppression.
Quite the rant, but may I add not a rant against the wonderful people of PNG, but rather those who exploit them.
To read why Papua New Guinea is such a mess click here.
Early mornings, bribes and overbooking
Papua New Guinea suffers from not enough planes, fuel shortages and a prevalence for overbooking. This means that to have a chance of getting on a flight, particularly if you have a lot of people is coming 3-5 hours before your flight. You then que. sometimes with the need for a gift, or rather the option of a gift to speed things up, or get things done.
This was particularly prevalent last year during the Goroka Festival when all these issues were there, but on acid. People were camping in the airport and even with “gifts” flights could take a few days.
And there is another issue to and that is pretty much incompetence Just yesterday while flying from Lae (link) my 18.05 flight had been moved to 19.45, no huge problem as it gave me more time in town. When I arrived at the airport at 17.50 I was to discover that actually the flight was still at 18.05. I managed to get everyone on board, but sans two full bags. Said bags needed to be picked up the next day. Shit like this is unfortunately regular.
What are the airports like when you fly domestically in Papua New Guinea?
Generally when you fly domestically in Papua New Guinea the airports are not all that great, but they are at least improving. This means in certain places, such as Lae and Goroka huts have been replaced by actual airports built by the Japanese. Mots of the rest of the country still uses huts that are really not all that great. This sadly includes Buka, which certainly does not boar well for any future independence,
And as for Port Moresby? Well while the staff are very friendly it should not mean me saying it does have a lot of problems. One One can read my article on it here.
So, the is the same again for international, but in actuality few flights are canceled, but almost all are delayed from the Air Niu Guinea Side.
And should one prefer someone like YPT to book and deal with it for you? Agaim. You can check out PNG tours here.