Aropa Airport guide

Aropa Airport, also called Kieta Airport, is the main airfield on the east coast of Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. It sits at about 3 metres above sea level beside the Aropa River, on the coast south of Kieta. The ICAO code is AYIQ.

The field began as a grass strip of roughly 800 by 80 metres. Japanese forces took it without resistance on 31 March 1942, and Allied aircraft bombed it from mid-1943 to mid-1944. After the war it was repaired and became Bougainville's main airport.

The airport was abandoned in 1988 during the Bougainville Crisis, and much of its infrastructure was destroyed. It reopened on 12 December 2014 after 24 years, with first flights by Air Niugini, Airlines PNG and Travel Air. The redevelopment of the airport and terminal cost an estimated K18.2 million. A single asphalt runway, 14/32, is 1,645 metres long and handles aircraft up to the size of a Bombardier Dash 8. Scheduled flights link Kieta with Rabaul.