Air Niugini, PNA Air says safety was maintained amid PNG National Weather Service strike

Air Niugini and PNG Air stated safety was not compromised during strike action by PNG National Weather Service staff (Post Courier, 16-Jan-2018). Air Niugini GM commercial Dominic Kaumu maintained Air Niugini operated normally during the strike period due to contingency plans that factored in the withdrawal of weather services. He said the automated weather observing systems from PNG Air Services is reliable and was provided in real time, which included external sources from Australia. "Safety is paramount in Air Niugini's operations. Our flights operated as normal during the strike period", Mr Kaumu said, adding: "We were able to source real time weather information from AWOS, which was reliably relayed to us by Papua New Guinea Air Services Limited". He added that Air Niugini also sourced weather information from the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia. PNG Air CCO Paul Abbot said similar preparations were conducted, including bringing in a weather expert during the strike period. "PNG Air Services were using their AWOS weather system at Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Hagen, and Madang to produce METAR's and SPECI's which were sent out to industry via the aeronautical fixed telecommunication network", Mr Abbot said, adding: "These updates were printed and made available for crew and transmitted to airborne crew by our operations centre. We had an operations officer who understands the weather brought in to perform this duty only so that crews are fully informed for atleast these five airports what the current conditions are".