Air Rarotonga says it hopes to fly more tourists to the northern Cook Islands from next year when the runway on Manihiki has been upgraded to take larger planes.
The airline's manager, Ewan Smith, says work to lengthen the runway and improve its surface should be completed by the end of this year.
Mr Smith says this will allow Air Rarotonga to change its two weekly flights.
"We will intially replace one of those flights with a Saab 340 and next year when we receive our second Saab we'll go to a twice a circular flight that goes to Manihiki/ Penrhyn twice a week and introduce a little bit of tourism up there."
Ewan Smith
