Finschhafen Airport

Finschhafen Airport is a general aviation airport in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.. It is located on the south-east tip of Huon Peninsula at Finschafen. A half mile inland, parallel to Schneider Harbor, with Dregerhaffen to the south-east. It has no scheduled commercial airline service.

History

The airport was built during World War II in late 1943 by the United States Army 807th and 808th Aviation Engineer Battalions along with the 60th Naval Construction Battalion constructed a 6,000' x 100' coral and steel matting single runway running NNW to SSE. The tower was code named 'Harvest'. In mid-November 1943, the Seabees performed rough grading on the northern end of the strip, and crushed coral for the entire area. On 5 January the 808th departed, and the 60th CB completed the airfield, building fighter and medium bomber hardstands, mostly located to the north, with more to the east and a few on the southern side of the runway. Many aircraft shipped from the United States were assembled at Finschhafen and then flown to other airfields for operations.

At the war's end, millions of dollars of equipment both new and used was bulldozed into huge holes in the area and abandoned.