Mota Lava Airport is an airport located on the island of

Mota Lava Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu. It forms a single coral system with the small island of Ra. The 2009 census figures give a population of 1640 inhabitants (Mota Lava + Ra), which amounts to a pop ...

, one of the

Banks Islands The Banks Islands (in Bislama ''Bankis'') are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu. Together with the Torres Islands to their northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba. The island group lies about north of Maewo, and inclu ...

in the Torba

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. Also known as ''Valua Airport'', it is located on the eastern end of Motalava island, near the village of Aplow (formerly known as ''Valuwa'').

Characteristics

The airport is situated at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

, in length. Out of the four airports in the Torba province, Valua Airport has the length and reliability advantage.

Air Vanuatu Air Vanuatu is an airline with its head office in the Air Vanuatu House, Port Vila, Vanuatu. It is Vanuatu's national flag carrier, operating to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and points in the South Pacific. Its main base is Bauerfiel ...

coordinates all maintenance and rehabilitation programs of the building facilities, including the runway. Identical to other island aircraft ports throughout the archipelago, safety and security fencing is still lacking. Valua airport is 12 km from the island's main center. There may be one or two four-wheel drive vehicles available on some flights, but their availability is not guaranteed. One can also hike to the island's center by foot in just under three hours. Water sources are scarce and many are unsafe for drinking. At times there are road markets, basically non-cooked island crops up for sale, with hot meals being occasionally served. No clinic or restroom can be found near the airport boundary.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

* {{authority control Airports in Vanuatu Torba Province