Although the airline isn’t among the largest or most prominent worldwide, the news is equally important for the home country. Just a few hours ago Air Niugini has placed an order with Airbus to receive its first A220 planes. Why has this carrier chosen this aircraft and how will it use it? Let’s take a deep dive into this piece of news and talk it all over.
The Air Niugini Airbus A220 Order
The Airbus A220, formerly the CS-100 and CS-300, will soon have a new operator. The national carrier of Papua New Guinea will incorporate into its fleet the A220 in both of its variants, making it the latest operator to adopt the aircraft type. Air Niugini will become the 17th operator worldwide to adopt the aircraft type, you can find out who the others are in this other post.
Air Niugini has placed an order directly with Airbus and will receive another set of planes from lessors. Specifically Air Niugini has ordered and will receive:
- 6 Airbus A220-100 directly from the manufacturer.
- 3 Airbus A220-300 from third party lessors
- 2 Airbus A220-100 from third party lessors
Therefore the airline will be receiving 11 of the extremely popular jets to modernise and expand its fleet and operations.
Image by Airbus.com
Filling a Void in The Fleet
The arrival of these new Airbus A220s will fill a void which is quite noticeable in the Air Niugini fleet. The carrier currently operates 2 767, the only wide body planes of its fleet, and 1 Boeing 737-800 with the rest of the fleet comprised of smaller turboprop Fokker 100 and DHC Dash-8 planes.
Therefore there is the need for a plane capable of landing in smaller airfield but also capable of operating longer routes where demand might be thinner. With a plane of this type at its disposal the airline can free other planes for more useful services.
The A220s will be capable of connecting Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, with destinations such as Singapore, Tokyo and New Zealand.
The Engine Option For the New Air Niugini A220s
All planes will come fitted with the Pratt&Whitney PW1100G GTF (geared turbofan) engines as this is the only option for the A220. Hopefully when these planes will be delivered all issues with the engine will be resolved and long gone. We’ll have to wait and see about this though.
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