Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
Honiara International Airport, on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, is the country's principal gateway and the former World War Two airfield of Henderson Field. It sits close to the site of the fierce 1942 battle for Guadalcanal, with a single long asphalt runway serving international and domestic traffic today.
Honiara International Airport (ICAO: AGGH, IATA: HIR) serves the capital, Honiara, on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands, and is the country's only true international airport, with Munda Airport in Western Province acting as its designated alternate. For the simulator pilot the field is notable chiefly for its history as Henderson Field, the airstrip fought over during the Guadalcanal campaign, and for its role today as the hub for Solomon Airlines and the point of arrival for regional carriers linking the islands to Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The airport lies on the island of Guadalcanal, about eight kilometres from the town of Honiara. It sits close to the mouth of the Lunga River and the Matanikau River, with the high ground of Mount Austen and the ridge lines fought over in 1942, including Bloody Ridge (Edson's Ridge), visible to the south of the field.
The airport has a single physical runway, 06/24, of hard surface construction, 7,223 feet in length, and lit for night operations.
An Aerodrome Flight Information Service (AFIS) operates under the callsign INFO on 118.1 MHz, with a secondary frequency of 342.5 MHz also listed for the INFO service. There is no ILS at the field.
Pilots approaching the field can use the coastline and the mouths of the Lunga and Matanikau Rivers as leading marks, along with the high ground of Mount Austen and Bloody Ridge to the south of the airport, both prominent features from the 1942 fighting for Guadalcanal.
The airfield began life as Henderson Field, built by the Japanese and captured by United States Marines in August 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal, becoming a critical air base contested for months in one of the pivotal campaigns of the Pacific War. After the war the US Army abandoned the airfield, but it was subsequently developed into a civilian airport, becoming Henderson International Airport before being renamed Honiara International Airport in September 2003, coinciding with the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), for which it served as the principal air point of departure. The terminal was renovated in 2005 with the assistance of a grant from Japan. In November 2022 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck south-west of Honiara, damaging the terminal ceiling and forcing the temporary closure of affected areas for repairs.
Honiara International Airport remains the Solomon Islands' main international gateway, served by Solomon Airlines with connections to Port Moresby, alongside Air Niugini and QantasLink services to Port Moresby, Port Vila and Brisbane respectively. It continues to be the country's principal airport for both international and domestic operations, with Munda Airport functioning as its alternate.
