Aropa Airport (or Kieta Airport) is an airport in

Kieta Kieta is a port town located on the eastern coast of the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, near the township of Arawa. After extensive destruction during the 1990 Civil Uprising on Bougainville, Kieta has few inhabitants now, and is kno ...

, Bougainville Island,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

History

The original grass airfield was occupied and expanded by the

Imperial Japanese The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

in spring 1942. It then became the target of Allied air bombing from mid-1943 to mid-1944.Kieta Airfield (Aropa)
/ref> After World War II the airport became one of Bougainville's main airports. The airport was partially destroyed during the '' Bougainville Crisis'' of the 1990s and had been closed since then. For many years the airfield was disused and overgrown with bush. In February 2012 the owners announced their intention to reopen the airport. In a ceremony held on December 12, 2014 the airport was officially reopened by the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea,

Peter O'Neill Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. From 2002 until the present he served as Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pan ...

, and by the president of the

Autonomous Region of Bougainville Bougainville ( ; ; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil''), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: ''Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil''), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the re ...

John Momis John Momis (born 3 March 1942) is a Bougainvillean politician who served as the President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea between 2010 and 2020. Momis served as a Catholic priest from 1970 until 1993, becoming active ...

. For the time being the airport can only accommodate aircraft the size of

Bombardier Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

or smaller.

Airlines and destinations

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{authority control Airports in Papua New Guinea Autonomous Region of Bougainville World War II airfields in Papua New Guinea

History

Airlines and destinations

See also

References

Bibliography

External links