15 Apr 2013

Flights resume to a Solomon Islands provincial capital after a landowner protest

7:37 pm on 15 April 2013

Flights to the remote Solomon Islands province Temotu are expected to resume tomorrow after landowners halted airport operations at Lata at the weekend.

The Solomon Airlines' General Manager of Commercial and Operations, says the airline cancelled its Saturday service to Lata, after receiving a threatening letter.

Landowners have now signed an agreement with the provincial and national governments, to allow authorities time to deal with their concerns.

Gus Kraus says the landowners have withdrawn their threat to the airport and police have guaranteed the safety of passengers when Solomon Airlines resumes its twice-weekly flights tomorrow.

"We've got all the ticks in the right boxes for us to operate and after we see the operation and get a report on return, we'll make a further assessment of what other flights we need to put on to catch the backlog."

Gus Kraus says the Tuesday morning flight to Lata will depart Honiara at 10 o'clock.