P.M.O. ANNOUNCED RE-OPENING OF GWAUNARU’U AIRPORT
Disembarking passengers at Gwaunaru’u airports when it was still open. Photo credit: sb.geoview.info
The Prime Minister’s Office has announced that Gwaunaru’u Airport on Malaita Province will reopen soon.
A government statement says this follows successful negotiations with landowning groups of the airport – the Fulisisila Birankwao and Toloabu Rofa tribes and representatives of communities living around the airport.
National Consultant for Communication and Aviation in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Aloysius Poiohia says parties involved including the landowning groups, Malaita Provincial Government delegation and representative of the Civil Aviation Authority of Solomon Islands (CAASI), have agreed with a three-point resolution.
These include the reopening and service of the airport with immediate effect, all concerned parties must work within the framework of the 2012 Solomon Islands Government Memorandum of Understanding with the landowning groups.
A review of the 2012 MOU expects to be conducted with immediate effect.
SIBC News understands, the airport was closed in 2013 after the communities living around the airport accused the Civil Aviation Authority of breaching parts of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with them in 2012 for the cleaning of the airport.