Faleolo International Airport

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Faleolo International Airport
IATA: APW - ICAO: NSFA
Summary
Airport type		Public
Serves		Apia
Elevation AMSL		58 ft (18 m)
Coordinates		13°49′48″S, 172°00′30″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
08/26	9,843	3,000	Asphalt

Faleolo International Airport (IATA: APW, ICAO: NSFA) is an airport located 40km west of Apia, the capital of Samoa.

Until 1984, faleolo could accomodate jets up to boeing 737. Larger jets, such as 747, to faraway destinations such as the US west coast, serviced samoa from nearby Tafuna airport in American Samoa. Small propeller jets connect American and independent Samoa

Faleolo is now equipped with the following:

Runway 08/26 3000x45m

Low intensity runway lighting. Precision Approach Path Indicators. Low intensity lighting Approach Lighting System (one bar).

PCN 58 FBXT

That is: Flexible runway surface, medium subgrade strength, medium tyre pressure (1500kpa max), and technical evaluation has been done. Boeing 747s are the largest aircraft that can land at Faleolo. (The runway is not really strong enough for DC-10s, and would be weight restricted for Airbus A340 aircraft.) Currently, Boeing 767s are the largest aircraft seen at Faleolo.

Faleolo Tower has some jurisdiction over the airspace of American Samoa and Tonga as well as its own airspace. It is assisted by the tower at Nadi, and the whole area is under Oceanic Control from Auckland, New Zealand.

VOR/DME 113.9 NDB 270 Faleolo is also equipped with Instrument Landing System equipment.

[edit] Airlines

Air New Zealand (Auckland, Los Angeles, Tonga)
Air Pacific (Nadi)
Virgin Blue
- Pacific Blue operated by Polynesian Blue (Auckland, Sydney)
Polynesian Airlines (Maota, Pago Pago, Tongatapu)
- Polynesian Airlines operated by Air Pacific (Nadi)

[edit] Incidents

In 2000, Air New Zealand flight NZ60 nearly overshot the runway due to a faulty instrument landing system, which had been accidentally damaged by a digger. The pilots took a number of measures to successfully prevent an accident, which were incorporated into a training video. [1]