The international airport in New Caledonia’s capital Noumea will remain closed to commercial flights until June 2, its operator said Sunday, with a minister saying the situation in the French Pacific territory remains “very difficult”.
Seven people have been killed in New Caledonia since riots over planned voting reforms erupted on May 13.
The New Caledonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which manages the airport, said it would remain closed to commercial flights until June 2.
That would extend the shutdown to nearly three weeks in total, after flights were halted on May 15 after deadly rioting broke out in the French Pacific territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron flew to the Pacific archipelago on Thursday in an urgent bid to defuse the crisis, and the situation has been gradually easing for the past few days.
However, the situation “remains very difficult for the island’s inhabitants, particularly in Greater Noumea”, Marie Guevenoux, France’s minister for overseas territories, said in a statement on Saturday evening.
On Saturday, the first evacuation flights for French tourists stranded in New Caledonia took off, the high commission in the archipelago said.
The tourists departed Saturday from Magenta airfield in Noumea aboard military aircraft headed for Australia and New Zealand.
They will then have to take a commercial flight to mainland France.
French nationals were also due to be repatriated to Polynesia on Sunday on a flight chartered by the French army.
Australia and New Zealand had already begun repatriating their nationals on Tuesday.
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