Christmas Island Airport Kiribati

Alicante Airport

The Cassidy International Airport (IATA: CXI, ICAO: PLCH) is an airport situated just south of Banana, a Kiritimati village (also known as Christmas Island) in Kiribati. This is the only airport in the Kiribati part of the liner islands with an IATA and/or International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) number. Fijian airline Air Pacific from Nadi, Fiji and Honolulu, USA, serves the airport.

As neither Air Kiribati nor Coral have Sun Airways planes that can fly between Kiritimati and the Gilbert Islands, where all other operating airfields in Kiribati are situated, there are no internal connections to or from Kiritimati. However Coral Sun Airways explains on its website that the airline is considering buying a bigger plane that can fly to the Line Islands and the Phoenix Islands.

Throughout World War II, the United States Army Air Forces Air Command used the airport as a refueling stop on its Pacific transportation lane from Hawaii to Canton Iceland for air travel to Australia and New Zealand and as a base for attack on the Gilbert Islands under Japanese occupation.

During the Second Worldwar the airport was significantly extended, and the airport's airstrip configurations can still be seen in air borne imagery as deserted airstrips and airplane car parks. It is located at an altitude of 2 meters above the surface. Air Pacific on August 29, 2008 announces that it will cease operations as of September 2, 2008.

It was decided due to the worsening airstrip area, which was considered insecure following an Air Pacific staff and specialized airstrip inspector. While Air Pacific was not providing its service to Fiji and the United States, an US airline named Te Mauri Travel provided "temporary" charters to Kiritimati.

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