PNG Air (CG, Port Moresby) has resumed international flights following the launch of scheduled charter flights between Papua New Guinea and Australia on Monday, August 14.

In a statement, the Papua New Guinea-based carrier confirmed its Lihir Island Island-Cairns service would operate 3x weekly as part of a contract with Newcrest Mining.

“The airline will be flying 3 days each week between Cairns and Lihir Island using our new ATR 72-600 aircraft,” Muralee Siva, the Chief Executive of PNG Air, said in a statement. “We have been working with Newcrest Mining for a number of years now on their domestic PNG travel and it’s been great to move up to providing all of their air travel needs including the international flights to Cairns."

He added that PNG Air is also looking at resuming scheduled passenger services to Cairns in the future alongside the mooted launch of scheduled passenger flights to Indonesia.

PNG Air operates a fleet of six ATR72-600Cs and ten DHC-8-100s on flights to over twenty destinations across Papua New Guinea.