Tau Airport was a privately owned, private-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located southeast of the village of Ta‘ū on the island of Ta‘ū in

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the Internationa ...

, an

unincorporated territory Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sove ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The airport was located in the northwest corner of Ta‘ū island. Tau Airport was deactivated in 1990, and was replaced by

Fitiuta Airport Fitiuta Airport is a public airport located in Fiti‘uta, a village on the island of Ta‘ū in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Fitiuta Airport replaced Tau Airport (located in the village of Tau), which was ...

, located on the northeast side of the island. Satellite imagery from 2015 does not appear to show any remnants of the airport.

Facilities and aircraft

Tau Airport previously covered an area of and had 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 ...

(18/36) measuring . The runway surface was compacted coral in the center , with the rest of runway composed of dirt and grass. According to the last issued FAA data, for 12-month period ending March 8, 1989, the airport had 4,380 aircraft operations, an average of 12 per day: 67%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and 33%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

References

External links

National Park Service map of the Manu‘a Islands
showing location of Ta‘ū village on the island of Ta‘ū. * Resources for this airport: ** ** Defunct airports in the United States Airports in American Samoa {{AmericanSamoa-geo-stub