Aviation: Air Niugini airline celebrates 45 years in Cairns

Forty-five years ago, a Fokker F27 Friendship plane touched down outside a “shed” in Cairns, marking the start of a relationship which pioneered international growth from the city.

Cairns Air Niugini employees Hagen Korinihona (sixth from left back row) and Annemarie Rhodes (middle front row) in a 1977 cabin crew graduation photo. The pair remain as the only two staff at the Cairns Air Niugini office as the airline celebrates a 45-year relationship with the Far North.

THE Far North’s longest-serving international airline, Air Niugini, marks 45 years of service on Thursday.

On September 17, 1975, a Fokker F27 Friendship flight took off from Port Moresby on the newly independent nation of Papua New Guinea, headed for Cairns Airport.

Two years later former cabin crew attendant and now regional sales manager Annemarie Rhodes touched down at the Cairns Airport.

She has been with the company ever since. But she remembers a very different town in the late 1970s.

An Air Niugini Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft, the same kind of plane that touched down for the first time in Cairns 45 years ago in 1975.

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“When I got to Cairns here (the terminal) was just a shed and we had to collect our bags from one of those moving escalator benches,” she said.

“I started off with the (Fokker) 27 and then was promoted to F28 and then to the (Boeing) 707. (It now uses Boeing 767s)

“In those days our international flights were to Cairns, Sydney, Brisbane; we also had few to Hawaii, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.”

Air Niugini was the first international airline to touch down in Cairns and throughout the COVID crisis has been the only offshore carrier to service the city.

Air Niugini CEO Bruce Alabaster (centre) said the airline’s 45-year tie to Cairns was of “special” significance.

Air Niugini CEO Bruce Alabaster said the partnership had stood the test of time.

“The opportunity to operate into Cairns Airport as the first international airline was in itself historic and special, a tie that’s maintained to date,” he said.

Mr Alabaster said that since the pandemic onset in March, Cairns Airport and Air Niugini had played a vital role in flying essential workers, medical and other supplies to keep Papua New Guinea’s economy going.

Cairns Airport chief executive Norris Carter said Air Niugini had been instrumental in pioneering the growth of international aviation from the city and the airline provided a vital foundation from which much of the business, investment and social connection had been built.

“Four and half decades is an impressive record of uninterrupted service connecting Cairns with Port Moresby and beyond, and it’s an outstanding achievement,” he said.

“This co-operation and commitment from Air Niugini has been important, not only to the airport but to the local economy and most recently a crucial part of our trade story.”

Prior to COVID-19, Air Niugini carried 50,000 passengers a year between Cairns and Port Moresby.

In October last year, the airline began a wide-body service between Cairns and Hong Kong as a replacement to Cathay Pacific’s axed route.

Ms Rhodes said Air Niugini gave her the opportunity to see the world and create so many fond memories, and that the airline had been part of her life since leaving school.

“It has been a long relationship for a long time and Air Niugini is still flying in and out,” she said.

“This is a special day, 45-years is a long time.”

Originally published as Aviation: Air Niugini airline celebrates 45 years in Cairns