Asau Airport is a small domestic airfield located in the thick dense jungle at the northwest end of Savai'i in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. The airport is in the village of Asau and mainly services chartered flights. The original airport was constructed in 1969. It was washed away by Cyclone Ofa in 1990, and the current airport was built to replace it in 1999. After being closed for six years the airport reopened in April 2021.

Facilities

There is only one rigid and roughly surfaced runway. There are no runway lights, and there is no watch tower. Asau Airport, however, is under the main Sky Watch Tower at Faleolo International Airport on Upolu. Only

Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restart ...

and Britten-Norman Islander planes can land and take off this small airport, generally because the runway and tarmac cannot handle any other larger and heavier aircraft. The small tarmac can only fit two Twin Otter planes, with an aircraft parking shed located near the tarmac. Another small shed serves as the airport terminal.

2003 Disaster

In 2003, a cyclone swept past Samoa and most of the South Pacific. Asau was badly affected and the airport suffered serious damage. Since 2006, the airport has been shut, and all passengers who wished to go to Asau had to go through Maota Airport. Since then, the airport terminal was rebuilt and a new paved runway was installed. It is still uncertain whether the new runway is up to international standards.

Former airlines and destinations

The airport formerly served flights to and from Maota Airport, the main airstrip on Savai'i at the east end of the island,

Faleolo International Airport Faleolo International Airport is an airport located west of Apia, the capital of Samoa. Until 1984, Faleolo could not accommodate jets larger than a Boeing 737. Services to the United States, Australia, or New Zealand, could only land at Pago ...

on the main island

Upolu Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long and in area, making it the second largest of the Samoan Islands by area. With approximate ...

, and

Pago Pago, American Samoa Pago Pago ( ; Samoan: )Harris, Ann G. and Esther Tuttle (2004). ''Geology of National Parks''. Kendall Hunt. Page 604. . is the territorial capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County on Tutuila, which is American Samoa's main island. ...

References

External links

* * {{authority control Airports in Samoa Vaisigano