If you’re visiting Aitutaki, you’ll be arriving and departing on Air Rarotonga at Aitutaki Airport. It’s a 45-minute flight from/to Rarotonga.

The airport terminal itself is a modern, though small operation. Shuttles and accommodation operators meet arriving flights. There’s a WiFi hotspot and small cafe.

While the present asphalt runway, upgraded in 2007, is 1800m (nearly 6000ft) in length, two coral runways were originally built by the US military in 1942. They had to bring in heavy machinery to build the airfield, so in a chicken-before-egg situation, had to upgrade Arutanga’s port first to bring the machinery in by boat. The second runway (09/27), though not in use these days, still sits to the west of the present runway (14/32).

Among others to visit Aitutaki in the war years were Eleanor Roosevelt, author James Michener, Gary Cooper, and later, Marlon Brando and John Wayne.

For an absolutely fascinating look at Aitutaki during the years of WWII, check out The War Years in Aitutaki. The airport also has an impressive set of informative historical storyboards from this time in the island’s history.