AIR NIUGINI MADANG MAINTAINS “ON TIME PERFORMANCE” RECORD

Air Niugini Madang continues to maintain its “On Time Performance” in the third quarter of this year by recording the least delays to every aircraft that turned around within its port.

Madang is in category A port together with Lae, Rabaul and Mt Hagen where they have two to four flights on a daily basis. Madang has two daily flights.

Air Niugini’s General Manager, Ground Operations and Aviation Security, Marco McConnell on behalf of CEO, Simon Foo presented a Shield to the staff in Madang last week for their achievement.

Mr Foo commended Madang Port Manager, Wewe Pih and his staff for an excellent team work that resulted in maintaining OTP for three consecutive times this year, of which 100 percent OTP were recorded for some months.

“ It’s not easy to turn an aircraft within 30 minutes, ensuring details for all passenger, cargo, crew and aircraft are in place and departure is on schedule, I congratulate the Madang Port Manager and staff for an excellent performance.” Mr Foo said.

Under OTP, Air Niugini’s 23 domestic ports are divided into four categories and according to the number of flights in a day. Madang, Lae, Rabaul and Mt Hagen are in category A, followed by Goroka, Wewak, Hoskins and Manus. The rest fall into category C. The ports with the least number of flights in a week including Daru, Vanimo, Kiunga, Bulolo and Tabubil are in the last category. Port Moresby being the biggest port is categorized separately from other ports. Its competition is between the three shifts.

Mr Mcconnell encouraged staff in all ports to work smarter to achieve the 100 percent OTP mark.

He said “ So far Madang is leading in Category A, followed by Wewak in B, Tari and Bulolo in category C and Mendi in the last category. Port Moresby shift one won the first quarter, followed by shift 2 in the second and third shift in the third quarter.”

The domestic ports come under Air Niugini’s Ground Operations and Aviation Security Department. There are also other departments such as Flight Operations, Finance, Engineering, Marketing, Maintenance Control and others who contribute to achieving the overall on time performance.

On Time Performance is basically measured on the time taken for a scheduled flight to depart from a point of origin to the point of arrival. It’s the initiative of the current Chief Executive Officer, Mr Simon Foo. OTP was implemented towards the end of last year following complaints and queries from the traveling public on continuous delays and disruptions.

Prior to the implementation of OTP, Air Niugini’s overall average departures were around 40 percent, however since OTP came into effect at the end of last year, it is now averaging between 80 and 90 percent, there have been days when Air Niugini’s combined OTP for domestic and international flights have reached 100 percent mark.