Air Niugini to start Tokyo, Auckland flights in mid-2026

By Andrew Curran.

Updated @10.00 AEDT.  16/03/26. Air Niugini confirmed via Facebook the start of Auckland flights.

Air Niugini will resume flights to Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Auckland (AKL) in mid-2026. The airline last flew scheduled services to Tokyo six years ago and hasn’t regularly flown to Auckland since 1998. The network expansion was first reported by AeroRoutes.

Japan’s Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Hisanobu Mochizuki, flagged the impending Tokyo flights in a speech in Port Moresby last month, saying the route would “elevate business and bilateral relations between the two countries.”

Mochizuki also indicated a prospective July start but did not provide any further details and at the time, neither the airline nor external booking engines showed flights starting either that month or the next. That has now changed.

According to AeroRoutes, Air Niugini will start thrice weekly B737-800 operated services on the Port Moresby (POM) – Auckland city pair on June 11 and twice-weekly B767-300ER flights on the Port Moresby – Tokyo Narita city pair on July 18. Both city-pairs are currently unserved.

At the time of publication, neither Air Niugini nor the airports have formally announced the new flights. Aero South Pacific has contacted Air Niugini for comment.

Alongside an extensive domestic network, AIr Niugini flies to Hong Kong (HKG), Singapore (SIN), Manila (MNL), Honiara (HIR), Port Vila (VLI), Nadi (NAN), Cairns (CNS), Brisbane (BNE), and Sydney (SYD). It services these routes with B767-300ERs, B737-800s, and recently arrived A220-300s.

The news comes just four weeks after Alan Milne’s appointment as the airline’s new CEO was announced.

Photo: Air Niugini.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com