MAF in Papua New Guinea

Since 1951, MAF’s operations in Papua New Guinea has provided essential air transport to isolated communities located in some of the most rugged terrains in the world. PNG’s unique topography and poor infrastructure mean that for hundreds of villages in the catchment area of an airstrip, MAF provides essential and viable access to the outside world and the help and hope needed by many people in bush communities.

The statistics below are based on 365 days per year, although we recognise that MAF programmes do not fly every day. Also, 2020 was a year highly impacted by restrictions on domestic and international travel due to the pandemic and therefore, numbers are lower than in the previous years. But God has been faithful and still we could serve the people in remote Papua New Guinea to bring help, hope and healing in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Did you know that...

  • in 2021, our aircraft flew 4,295 hours in total. This means almost 180 days of continuous (24/7) flying!
  • in 2021, our aircraft flew 7,616 flight legs, which means 7,616 safe take-offs and landings. On average, this means our aircraft visited 20 communities each day to bring help, hope, and healing
  • in 2021, our aircraft carried 20,041 passengers, e.g. pastors and missionaries, health and community workers, teachers and students, and just ordinary citizens, to overcome the mountainous and swampy terrain of PNG.
  • in 2021, our aircraft carried 1,500 tonnes of cargo, e.g. hundreds of plywood or roofing iron sheets and other construction materials, exercise books and medicine, food, and soap, to only name a few. And then you still need to add the passengers' cargo allowance to that number!
  • in 2021, our aircraft flew a total of 740,512 km (453,839 nm). That’s more than 18 times around the globe.
  • in 2021, the MAF PNG fleet consisted of ten Cessna Caravan C208, which means we continue to operate a single-type fleet compared to all the years before 2019 when we operated different types of aircraft.
  • in 2021, 123 dedicated staff members ran MAF PNG, 90 of them being Papua New Guineans and 33 being ex-pats.
  • in 2021, MAF PNG teamed up with 76 partner organisations.
  • in 2021, our aircraft landed on 168 different airstrips. This means we'd rank at about number 14 on a worldwide statistic led by United Airlines, Lufthansa, or Qatar Airways.
  • in 2021, we flew 113 medical evacuation flights, but actually transported about 300 critically ill persons to a hospital.
  • in 2021, our pilots sold almost 2,000 Bibles, 420 solar-powered audio Bibles in remote villages, over 300 SD cards loaded with Christian content, and 110 Biblical handbooks. The hunger for God's Word is immense out there and so is the impact of the believers.