Since the ground breaking ceremony for the expansion of the Pago Pago International Airport parking lot in July, there hasn’t been much construction at the site. However, Director of Port Administration Barney Sene said people will begin seeing more construction activity beginning the week of December 8.
He said some preliminary work to update the coordinates of the construction area had to be completed first. The parking lot is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Construction of the new airport terminal is planned to begin in mid-2026, with design work expected to be completed earlier in the year. Sene said that after the terminal is completed by 2028, the next major project would be construction of a convention center. In discussions with the new CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, Diana Burkett Rakow, he outlined plans for the convention center, which is intended to attract regional and international meetings to American Samoa.
He said integral to this plan are daily flights from Honolulu. Sene said the airline CEO pointed out that Hawaiian Airlines is not seeing the loads on the current three weekly flights, but indicated that a convention center would help generate traffic to support more flights.
Also part of the airport expansion plan is construction of a 200-room hotel. Sene said the planned hotel would be situated next to the NOAA weather station. Funding has been secured for the terminal, and they are looking for possible funding sources for the convention center and hotel.
