Gasmata Island Airport (GMI)

Gasmata Island Airport is a small regional airfield on the southern coast of New Britain in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. It mainly supports charter, missionary and light aircraft flights that link Gasmata and nearby coastal villages with larger centres such as Kimbe and Port Moresby.

The airfield was originally built before the Second World War to serve a local copra plantation and was occupied by Japanese forces in 1942 as a forward operating base. After repeated Allied air raids, it was abandoned by mid-1943 and later returned to use for civilian and community aviation.

The facility has a single grass or dirt runway of roughly 800 metres and only basic infrastructure, with no formal terminal building or commercial passenger amenities. Services are minimal, so visitors need to arrange logistics and supplies in advance.

Because road access from Kimbe and other parts of the province is limited and unreliable, most travellers reach Gasmata by air or by boat along the Bismarck Sea coast. The airport therefore plays an important lifeline role for health, education, cargo and community movement in this remote part of West New Britain.