A third level airplane operator in Morobe province has had to halve its operations due to a severe shortage of aviation gas.
Avgas which is is used by the North Coast Aviation (NCA) for its smaller piston engine aircrafts has run out, forcing the airline to ground its planes.
Currently, its fuel supplies come from Poland, and with Papua New Guinea going through a foreign currency crisis, the drop in the Kina value has caused business costs to rise.
The airline is now calling on government to subsidize fuel for rural travel for the planes that use avgas.
Captain Thomas Keindip, the Chief Pilot of NCA, says running the airline has become quite difficult in the current climate.
The former MAF pilot is from Komba, in the Kabwum District of Morobe. His family also depends on NCA as a primary means of transport to and from their mountainous local level government area.
There is now a back log of cargo that needs to be transported. The cargo includes food, building materials and school and health supplies.
