31 Mar 2010

Kiribati to get Christmas island flights

3:13 pm on 31 March 2010

The National Tourism Office in Kiribati says regular flights to Christmas Island will be resuming on May the 25th.

After a 20 month respite to resurface the runway, Air Pacific will resume its operations to the Island, with weekly flights expected between Nadi in Fiji to Christmas Island and on to Honolulu in Hawaii.

Tarataake Teanaki of the National Tourism Office says it was a difficult time for locals and particularly fishing companies.

"Most of the operators, all their revenue from tourism all goes down. And also an impact, a negative impact on the number of goods that can be brought into the country, especially the regular supplied of food supplies from the market."

Tarataake Teanaki says once flights resume there will be greater benefits for tourism operators as well.