Government disappointed with recent Bauerfield runway problems

Airports Vanuatu Limited Chairman (AVL) Bakoa Kaltongga says Government is disappointed with what has happened recently with Bauerfield Airport runway as will affect the economy with the shutdown of flights especially by Virgin Australia.

He says the government is inquiring into how it will proceed with the matter through the Board and Airports Vanuatu Limited and the Vanuatu Development Projects Management Unit.

“We are all in it together and working on a solution to the problem to be effected as soon as possible,” he told 96 BuzzFM’s Kizzy Kalsakau.

Kaltongga, the First Political Advisor to the Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Jotham Napat, says Government and Vanuatu was recovering from sorting out the runway problem and getting international flight back into Port Vila. Unfortunately this problem has arisen and we have problems with the runway again.

AVL is trying to maintain the status of the runway to enable safe departures and arrivals of passengers into the country until the completion of phase 2 project on the runway.

It was planned that recurring problems with Bauerfield runway government attempted to fix in Phase One would be resolved in Phase Two.

“The first phase was the rehabilitation of the Bauerfield International Airport runway which we have carried out and should last for 12 months prior to the commencement of phase 2.

“Unfortunately it has not lasted because cracks have appeared on the runway in the areas not worked on in the first place, which our consultants and people who worked on it advised us these areas would last 12 months but as we’ve seen they lasted only three months,” Kaltongga said.

He explained that Phase 2 component of the Vanuatu Aviation Investment Project under the World Bank Program will be to upgrade Bauerfield Airport runway from a Category C 737 maximum aircraft to a Code C and Code E Enhancement that would enable long haul flights and larger planes to land.

After carefully looking at the money under the project Government has decided to upgrade the airport to full Code E to accommodate Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 without restrictions on load capacity. And they would be able to fly in and out with 100% capacity.

“We have knocked down the finer designs of the runway and that component would cover the runway, the taxiways, and the aprons. That will also include the appreciation of technology including installing performance-based navigation aids that assist aircraft to land at Bauerfield in all weather conditions.

“We are trying to take advantage of advancement in technology and aircraft performance especially with the dream line 787 aircraft performance and the A330, without which equipment such aircraft would be quite difficult to overcome the geographic limitations as such,” the AVL Board Chairman said.

He added that they should have tenders advertised and contracts awarded between September and November and mobilization should take place in January, February 2017 and construction work should start in April.

“We are trying to speed up the process because while we realize that phase one has been completed we are still having problems with the runway.”

The funds in Phase 2 don’t include the terminal, so AVL have run an expression of interest on the terminal separately, Kaltongga adds. It has shortlisted some seven companies and they are engaging them in much more detailed concept designs particularly because they are seeing that the runway alone would not bring out enough revenue so they are looking at the terminal project with a the business view.

Through the expression of interest and the type of design AVL wants the people who have expressed interest to provide quotations for cost of the project.

The plan for the new terminal is to have construction of the runway, taxiways and aprons run in parallel, Bakoa Kaltongga said.