PORT VILA AIR FREIGHT TERMINAL’S EARLY

OPENING AFTER VANUATU CYCLONE

The yet-to-be-completed new Air Freight Terminal at Vanuatu’s Port Vila International Airport got an impromptu opening when Australia shipped two emergency plane-loads of supplies to the little South Pacific nation after its battering by Cyclone Ivy earlier this month.

More than 2000 village people – mostly homeless and itinerants from outer islands visiting Port Vila – had to be given emergency housing in churches and public halls after the cyclone ripped through Vila, with wind gusts of up to 200km hour; one person died in the wild storm.

Airports Vanuatu Limited agreed to an Australian government request to allow two RAAF C-130 Hercules aircraft to discharge their loads of emergency supplies into the new Air Freight Terminal… on which building company Perronet Constructions continued working to ensure weather-proof security for the supplies despite post-cyclone torrential rain and strong winds.

Vanuatu’s Mobile Field Force and the Red Cross are now distributing the emergency supplies.

The multi-million dollar Bauer Field Air Freight Terminal is due to be officially opened at the end of March this year.

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