Air Niugini

Is Air Niugini safe?

Air Niugini is safe enough for most trips, but it has a weaker record than the Australian and New Zealand airlines it competes with. In September 2018 one of its Boeing 737-800s landed in Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia after an approach the crew should have abandoned, and one passenger died. The fleet is old, the serious incidents keep coming, and its home network in the Papua New Guinea highlands is some of the hardest flying in the world. We score it 63.

The airline is not a black box, which counts in its favour. It passes IATA's safety audit (IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary), and Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) publishes long, frank reports on its accidents and incidents, with recommendations aimed squarely at the airline.

The Chuuk Lagoon crash

On 28 September 2018 flight PX73 was flying from Pohnpei to Port Moresby via Chuuk. The captain flew a GPS approach to runway 04 in the dark. The aircraft was above the glide path at 1,000 feet, then flew into a storm cell and heavy rain below the missed approach point. The captain did not go around. Thirteen sink rate and glideslope warnings sounded and the crew disregarded them; the co-pilot shouted that they were too low only after they passed 100 feet. The Boeing 737-800 skipped across the water and settled about 460 metres short of the runway.

Local boaters and US Navy divers took everyone else off. One passenger was missing, and divers found his body inside the aircraft three days later. The AIC found that the pilots did not follow Air Niugini's procedures, briefed the approach poorly and fixated on landing, and that the co-pilot did not challenge the captain or take control as the procedures required. It also found gaps in training for unstable approaches, and cabin problems: life rafts were readied at three exits against the airline's own procedure, and the safety cards showed the wrong way to them (RNZ).

That is a crew and training failure, not bad luck with weather, and it is why the accident record factor scores 62.

Other accidents since 2006

• Madang, October 2013. An ATR 42 freighter could not rotate on take-off and ran off the runway into a creek. The forward cargo zone was loaded well past its limit and the centre of gravity was out of range. The three crew escaped; the aircraft was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. It was leased from Farnair, but it was registered in Papua New Guinea and the AIC named Air Niugini as the operator and faulted its loading procedures, so it counts here.
• Port Moresby, February 2023. The crew of a Fokker 70 diverted back from Mount Hagen without resetting the cabin landing elevation from about 5,500 feet. They then flew the pressurisation by hand. 22 people were hurt, with bleeding ears and noses, and 4 were admitted to hospital. The AIC called it a serious incident; under ICAO rules it is an accident, and we count it as one.
• Port Moresby, May 2018. A Hercules taxiing for another operator clipped a parked, empty Air Niugini 737. That was not Air Niugini's doing, and it weighs little.

Air Niugini's last jet hull losses before that, two Fokker F28s at Madang in 1995 and at Lae in 1997, are outside our 20-year window.

Serious incidents: pressurisation and cargo

The pattern since 2016 is not dramatic but it is persistent. The AIC investigated a Fokker 70 depressurisation near Port Moresby in November 2019 and a Fokker 100 that lost cabin pressure near Madang in March 2020, on its first flight after bleed system maintenance; the second report ended with two recommendations to Air Niugini. In July 2024 cargo handlers loading a 737 at Port Moresby found mercury leaking from a package declared as excavator parts. Nobody was hurt, but the report found weak points in how cargo was screened and accepted. A 767 cracked a windshield over the Pacific in April 2025, and in May 2026 a Q400 made a precautionary landing at Port Moresby after a nose-wheel warning.

How old are Air Niugini's planes?

Old. In 2024 the airline still flew six Fokker 70s and seven Fokker 100s, types that left production in the 1990s, plus two Boeing 767-300ERs and a mix of older Dash 8s (ch-aviation). The 737-800s are leased.

Renewal is under way and is listed in the government's 2024–2028 public investment programme, which values it at PGK3.3 billion. Air Niugini ordered 11 Airbus A220s; three A220-300s had arrived by December 2025, and in 2026 they took over Port Moresby to Cairns and Sydney, alongside a new Nadi route (CAPA). Q400s are to replace the older turboprops and two 787-8s the 767s. The A220 can only reach domestic airports once their runways are upgraded, so the Fokkers will keep flying the highlands for some time.

Who checks Air Niugini?

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority of PNG certifies the airline. Papua New Guinea is not on the FAA's safety assessment list, because no PNG airline flies to the United States; that is a gap in information, not a downgrade. No PNG airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. Air Niugini is an IATA member, so it holds IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. The AIC's reports are a real strength and are why we have this much detail.

Flying in Papua New Guinea

Mount Hagen, Goroka, Tari and Mendi sit in high valleys ringed by mountains, where cloud builds fast in the afternoon. The AIC's list of investigations for 2024–2026 is dominated by small operators crashing on remote strips, and the worst crashes in recent memory were on other airlines, such as the Dash 8 that killed 28 near Madang in 2011. That aircraft belonged to Airlines PNG, now PNG Air, Air Niugini's main domestic competitor. Local unrest also reaches airports: Mendi was closed from October 2017 to February 2018, and in June 2018 rioters burned a parked Link PNG Dash 8 there.

• Fly early. Highland flights in the morning are less likely to be turned back by cloud.
• Accept a turn-back. A return to Port Moresby because Mount Hagen is in cloud is the system working; Chuuk is what happens when a crew presses on.
• On Air Niugini, prefer the A220 or 737 where you have the choice, and keep your belt on in the highlands, where turbulence is common.

How we scored it

The accident record (62) carries the biggest weight and is pulled down by Chuuk. The fleet (52) is the weakest factor, the environment (60) reflects the highlands, and serious incidents (64) and oversight (72) sit in between. For comparison, Fiji Airways scores 85 and Air Tahiti Nui 89.