The introduction of competition has being great for the airline industry in Papua New Guinea. For starters the cost of air travel to destinations within Papua New Guinea and to overseas countries has become a lot cheaper. For example this week Airlines PNG was offering specials to Lae for K99 from Port Moresby.On Wednesday I had a bit of time to kill so when a friend asked me to accompany them to the Air Nuigini travel center at Wagani next to Stop n Shop. I decided to tag along for the ride. In hind sight I wish that I had not gone. There was a long line and after waiting for what seemed like ages my friend suggested that we log on to Virgin Pacific Blue's website and see if it was possible to book a ticket to Sydney. To cut a long story short using a credit card it took a whole 5 minutes to book and pay for the ticket online. The great news about this is now you don't have to wait in a long line any more to book overseas flights as long as you have credit card or debit card (e.g. BSP Visa Debit Card).
It is times like this that it makes me think that the gap of the digital divided it getting smaller. If you don't know what the digital divide is click on the link above to read a paper that I found on Google Knol that I fellow Papua New Guinean has writtern.
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Great news!
ReplyDeleteWhat about domestic flights with Air NG?
And do they offer the same service?
You can book online with Air NG for domestic flights, but currently I am a bit hesitant to try. There is something about the way the Air NG online booking system works that I don't like. I think the design and layout of the booking system is currently not user friendly enough for my liking. I like to see the https in the browser for reassurance that I am not being scammed, and by not seeing this it makes me wounder how secure my data really is when using Air NG online booking? There are no privacy assurances or any guarantees stating that you are booking securely online etc. Mind you I have not gone to the completing the booking stage because I am scared of my details falling into the wrong hands.
ReplyDeleteService wise I think Air NG in regards to booking and paying for flights online has a long way to go before it can catch up to Virgin Blue or Qantas etc.