"Air Marshall Islands @ Funafuti Airport Tuvalu" by Xmyrxn via Flickr Creative Commons

Funafuti International Airport

Funafuti is Tuvalu’s only commercial airport and the country’s main gateway. It is located in the capital city. Currently, there is only one scheduled commercial flight into Tuvalu, coming from Suva in Fiji and operated by Pacific Air. Fiji has a larger airport from where it is possible to fly to many destinations in North America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The flight to Fiji operates three times weekly.

The airport was originally built by the American military in 1943 during WWII and has since been upgraded. It adequately serves the lowly populated country, which has around 12,500 inhabitants. Other islands of Tuvalu are not large enough to house an airport, and mostly locals travel by boat or seaplane that are able to land on water.

Funafuti airport is very small and lacks even basic facilities. All international flights require a connection in Suva, Fiji, which is a journey of around 2 hours, 30 minutes. Once there, you will be able to make use of international airport facilities such as duty free. There are taxis available to collect you from the airport, although due to the limited number of flights arriving in Tuvalu, it is always worth calling ahead for a pick up. Many hotels offer airport pick-ups.

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