Nouméa Magenta Airport
Nouméa Magenta Airport is a domestic airport on the main island of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The airport is east-northeast of the city centre of Nouméa, the capital, approximately southeast of La Tontouta International Airport. In 2017, 428,679 passengers used the airport.
Air Calédonie has its head office on the airport property.
In November 2025, the government of New Caledonia announced that the airport will close in March 2026, with all flights shifted to La Tontouta Airport.
History
- 1931: First biplane flight on the beach in Magenta, located on the east coast of Nouméa.
- 1934: Creation of L'Aéro-club Calédonien.
- 1942: Arrival of the Poppy Force, a US Army division commanded by General Alexander Patch, making New Caledonia one of the main Pacific airbases for the US Army. A military airfield is built along the beach in Magenta by Seabees of Naval Construction Battalion 11 on the site of a former racetrack.
- 1956: Opening of the airfield to civilian air traffic, two years after the creation of Transpac, the first domestic New Caledonian airline and forerunner of Air Calédonie, which has regular flights between Nouméa, the Isle of Pines and the Loyalty Islands.
- 1970s: Construction of the first terminal, with a capacity of 100,000 people.
- 2001: Completion and opening of the new terminal, increasing capacity to over 300,000 people.