Overdue Plans for Modernising Nadi Airport Announced

Out Of The Talk

May Be Action

In an effort to retain Nadi as the “main staging point on the air route between Honolulu and Australasia” the South Pacific Air Transport Council will do some extensive building and installing of new equipment at the airport.

rIS was announced in Australia after the October meeting in Melbourne of the SPATC.

Meanwhile, in American Samoa, the retiring governor turned the first official sod on the new Tafuna airport on October 5. The Ameri cans plan to spend about sli million there, bringing it up to jet standard.

Maybe Nadi will not have it all its own way.

At Nadi, according to the SPATC, strengthening of existing runways and taxiways will be undertaken; likewise, the strengthening and extension of the aprons, construction of a new terminal building and a new control tower and the

acquisition of land to permit the extension of the runways.

There will be improvements of air navigation and communication facilities, which will incorporate a new transmitting and receiving station, ILC (instrument landing system) and VOR (visual omm range) is also planned.

“Rawin’’ equipment for wind observation at high level by balloon-borne radar targets will be installed and a high power, non directional beacon at Funafuti, in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Group, about half-way between Nadi and Canton Island and close to the Nadi-Honolulu route, will be set-up.

Those who have Fiji’s aviation interests at heart, hope that the Council has not left its activity too late. For years, the airport at Nadi has been the SPATC’s main concern, and so far nothing much has been done but talk.