Papua New Guinea Regional Airport Deploys New Scanner

Excerpt from report by Papua New Guinea Post-Courier website on 11 March

Passengers going out of East New Britain Province will now have a better sense of security when travelling out of the Tokua airport. Airport officials started using the airport’s new scanning machine recently which resulted in a large number of prohibited and dangerous goods being confiscated. Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] security officers confiscated knives, screwdrivers, sharp objects and other prohibited goods from passengers’ hand luggages.

CAA airports group general manager Manuai Kametan said Tokua was the second airport in PNG to have full check bag screening where passengers, hand luggages and check-in luggages were all screened.

The CAA security officers had to go through a formal training first before the airport started using the facility, which was launched last year.

The instalment of the scanning machine was part of the upgrading of Tokua facilities into international standard to cater for international routes. The airport had been operating routes to Honiara in the Solomon Islands two years ago but had to cease because of lack of such facilities.

The machine cost 2.4m kina [approx 880,000 US dollars] and was funded by the national government. [passage omitted]

Originally published by Papua New Guinea Post-Courier website, Port Moresby, in English 11 Mar 08.

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