Air Niugini (PX, Port Moresby) has suspended its flights to Buka in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville following threats that the carrier's aircraft would be grounded by a creditor of the local government, Post Courier has reported.
The route was suspended on July 13, 2018, when the carrier received a warning that a person claiming to be a ground services provider at Buka had threatened to prevent the aircraft from taking off. Reportedly, all service providers at the airport are collectively owed PGK15 million kinas (USD4.5 million) by the government of the autonomous region.
Although the claim does not include any debts incurred by the airline, Air Niugini's Fokker 100, which operates the route, turned around mid-flight and returned to Rabaul.
"Air Niugini was made aware of a situation on the ground between the Autonomous Bougainville Government and some groups of the community in regard to outstanding payments. As a precautionary measure, we had to return the aircraft. Air Niugini will be monitoring the situation on a daily basis," the carrier has said.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Air Niugini serves Buka 6x weekly out of Port Moresby, including three flights via Rabaul. PNG Air flies from Buka to Kieta, Rabaul, and Lihir Island.
Bougainville, a group of islands located in the North Solomon Islands, was subject to a bloody independence war in the 1990s wherein local separatists fought the central PNG's government. Since then, the territory has been calling for a referendum on its independence, which is now tentatively scheduled for mid-2019.
