Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Nouméa Magenta Airport (NWWM) is the domestic airport serving the New Caledonian capital, sitting close to the city centre on the beachfront district of Magenta. It handles inter-island services with Air Calédonie and Air Oceania to the Loyalty Islands, Isle of Pines and other outstations, and its single paved runway and short beachside setting make it a compact and characterful VFR destination in the southwest Pacific.
Nouméa Magenta Airport is the domestic gateway for Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia, an overseas French collectivity in the southwest Pacific. Operated for domestic and inter-island services, it is best known as the base for Air Calédonie's network to the Loyalty Islands and Isle of Pines, and more recently for Air Oceania flights. For a simulator pilot it offers an interesting short-runway, coastal approach into a Pacific island capital, with the larger international airport of La Tontouta lying well inland to the northwest.
The airfield lies on the main island of New Caledonia, about 3 km east-northeast of Nouméa city centre, on the beach at Magenta on the eastern side of the city. It sits some 38 km northwest of Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport, the country's main international gateway. Coordinates are 22°15'30"S 166°28'22"E at a field elevation of 7 feet.
Nouméa Magenta has a single paved runway aligned 17/35. Runway 17 is 3,445 feet long and runway 35 is 4,247 feet long, both hard-surfaced and lit; the differing published lengths for each direction reflect displaced thresholds on the strip. There is no ILS at the field.
Radio services at Nouméa Magenta include an approach frequency (APP) on 124.3 MHz, tower (TWR) also on 124.3 MHz, a supplementary VDF facility on 118.3 MHz, and an ATIS on 126.6 MHz. There is no ILS approach published for the airport.
The airfield is readily identified by its position directly on the beach at Magenta, on the eastern side of Nouméa, with the city centre and its harbour a short distance to the west and La Tontouta International Airport well inland to the northwest.
Aviation at the site dates back to 1931, when the first biplane flight took place on the beach at Magenta, on the east coast of Nouméa. The Aéro-club Calédonien was formed in 1934. During the Second World War, following the arrival in 1942 of the American Poppy Force under General Alexander Patch, New Caledonia became one of the principal Pacific air bases for the US Army, and Seabees of Naval Construction Battalion 11 built a military airfield along the Magenta beach on the site of a former racetrack. The airfield opened to civilian traffic in 1956, two years after the founding of Transpac, the forerunner of Air Calédonie, which began regular flights linking Nouméa with the Isle of Pines and the Loyalty Islands. A first terminal was built in the 1970s with capacity for 100,000 passengers, and a new terminal opened in 2001, raising capacity to over 300,000.
Nouméa Magenta continues to serve as the hub for domestic and inter-island flying in New Caledonia, with Air Calédonie operating scheduled services to Île Art, Île-des-Pins, Koné, Koumac, Lifou, Maré, Ouvéa and Touho, and Air Oceania flying to Lifou, Maré, Ouvéa and Tiga. The airport handled around 454,540 passengers in 2018. The government of New Caledonia announced in November 2025 that the airport will close in March 2026, with all flights transferring to La Tontouta Airport, so its future as an active flying field is limited.