The incident yesterday involving a cargo freighter operated by Toll which crashed at the Honiara international airport while landing calls for the need to quickly certify Munda as an international airport.
The accident which occurred in the morning affected all flights in and out of Henderson.
Even two of the international flights operated by Solomon Airlines and Air Nuigini were affected as a result causing a lot of inconvenience to the traveling public.
The Air Niugini flight was supposed to travel from Port Moresby to Honiara and on to Nadi, Fiji.
While the Solomon Airlines – A320 service was returning from Nadi, Fiji and was supposed to travel on to Brisbane.
As result of the accident, services into Honiara by both airlines have been disrupted yesterday.
Most of the passengers who supposed to take their international flight out of Honiara were really affected with many of them very disappointed.
Most of them are students who were supposed to return to their places of study.
The resumption flights into Henderson will depend on how soon the aircraft is removed from the tarmac.
Had Munda airport was certified as the second international airport, some of the flights into the country may be diverted to Munda when such incidents do happen.
Yesterday’s incident should be a lesson learnt for the country to quickly push for Munda as an international airport.
There needs to be a lot of work to upgrade Munda into an international standard airport and its important that government realises this.
