Papua New Guinea has approved the resumption of five local airlines' commercial services and is accepting incoming flights from 14 countries at Port Moresby, according to a new directive issued by the Pacific island’s National Pandemic Controller, David Manning.

The five airlines that have been green-lighted are Air Niugini, PNG Air, Hevilift (PNG), Tropicair (Papua New Guinea), and Asia Pacific Airlines (Papua New Guinea).

Flights are now allowed from Australia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Palau, and Niue. Flights may only land at Port Moresby's Jacksons International Airport.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Air Niugini has resumed 5x weekly services to Brisbane International, 4x weekly flights to Singapore Changi, 2x weekly to Manila Ninoy Aquino International, and weekly flights to Cairns and Hong Kong International respectively.

However, Papua New Guinea has tightened entry restrictions, now requiring arrivals to produce a covering letter, an approved international air passenger travel form, passport biodata page, work permit, visa and home quarantine approval (if applicable), a negative PCR test result, and an e-health declaration form barcode. All arrivals must be quarantined at a designated hotel in Port Moresby at their own cost. Those in quarantine may be monitored through a tracking device on their smartphone, or an ankle bracelet.