In October, air niugini received their latest A220 passenger plane, registration number P2-PGA, an A220-300. This is the first time in many years that the airline has purchased non-second-hand models, and there are still two B788s in the same period. After I browsed the Internet, I saw a video posted by a Chinese blogger on YouTube. He thought that New Guinea Airlines would use the A220 to fly to Xiamen and other coastal areas of China, but I think this view should not be taken.
The original intention of Air niugini’s use of the A220 series is actually to replace the old Fokker series fleet in the fleet, rather than opening up new routes. The first commercial flight of P2-PGA is from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Lai City, the second largest city in the country, from Papua There are three airlines travelling from New Guinea to Asia, one is Air niugini (codeshared with Cathay Pacific Airlines), China Southern Airlines, and Philippine Airlines. The destinations are Manila, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Singapore. Among them, the routes to Hong Kong and Singapore are operated by air niugini. In the early days, Cathay Pacific reached a three-party code-sharing agreement with air niugini and Air New Zealand in order to fly to Auckland. Subsequently, under the iterative update of aircraft, Cathay Pacific began to fly directly to New Zealand. Air niugini and Cathay Pacific codeshared flights to Hong Kong(There are two airlines from Port Moresby to Manila, air niugini and Philippine Airlines). New Guinea had planned to fly to Shanghai, but unfortunately the route was cancelled before it was launched.
The Chinese blogger proposed that the reason for this idea may be related to the flight of the A220 series, but ignored some facts. The first is that the fundamental purpose of air niugini’s purchase of the A220 series is to replace the old Fokker rather than open a new route. The second Air niugini’s main route is to Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Brisbane. Among these routes, Hong Kong and Singapore use the airline’s two B767 flights. Brisbane routes sometimes use the B737 to fly. Most of the B767. They will give priority to the above international routes, and the domestic route is also a considerable profit. It is unlikely that the remaining aircraft will fly on new international routes. After the arrival of the B787 next year, the B767 will be Quit the operation.
Therefore, I personally don’t think they will use A220 to open new routes.