Fixing a lifeline: How remote airstrips stay operational

Eric Peter and his team know what it means to an isolated community when their airstrip gets its tick of approval. It’s an emotional time of feasting and celebration for the entire village.

“It's really important for these villages. They got to have this,” said Eric.

You can read about the opening of the Aiyu airstrip and what it means to that community here.

Eric is an Airstrip Surveyor with the Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA). His team's job is to maintain and fix airstrips so they can be safely operated by MAF and other organisations.

There are many old airstrips in PNG that are currently closed, because they aren’t safe to operate. The RAA wants to help the rural communities to restore these old airstrips to enable them access to services again

“If you want to build a road, it's going to take some years and millions (of kina) to spend,” said Eric. “The old one (airstrip), we can restore it… In a month or six weeks depending on the work needed.

On this day the team visited Kaiam airstrip in East Sepik Province to do a survey, service the lawnmower and to maintain a good relationship with the community. 

Mathias Glass, MAF pilot, flew the team to Kaiam. He is impressed by the work of the RAA. As a pilot he experiences first-hand how important the partnership between MAF and the RAA is.

“RAA is helping MAF in maintaining the airstrips so MAF can provide services to these communities,” said Mathias. “Without the RAA the remote airstrips in PNG would deteriorate to the point where landing or taking-off poses a risk to the aircraft and the people inside.”

Jonny Watson is a technical advisor at the RAA and has been acting as the technical team manager for five years. He wants to highlight the communities of PNG who put in so much work preparing their airstrips for operations.

“The RAA provides tools and expertise, but really the communities provide all the rest and we just empower the communities to make sure they can do their job,” said Jonny