Air Niugini employees as well as those from the Civil Aviation Authority and the PNG Fire Service will hose down ash fall that has accumulated on the runway.
The operations, carried out to the recommendations and specifications of air safety regulations, would allow Air Niugini to resume normal services into and out of East New Britain.
PNG Airports Limited is expected to give Air Niugini the all-clear to resume normal services into and out of Tokua airport by the end of the week.
More than 50 flights to and from the airport have been cancelled after the airline suspended all services two weeks ago.
Apart from air travelers, students enrolled at schools and colleges outside ENB have been particularly affected by Air Niugini’s decision.
Many of the students and other commuters have resorted to traveling by sea, especially on Rabaul Shipping vessels, to ports in Kimbe, Kavieng or Lae and continuing their journeys from there.
The problem of accumulating volcanic ash fall began to get worse about three weeks ago after a sustained change in wind direction, with gusts blowing south-east and sending excessive ash fall over the air space and runway at Tokua airport.
As of last Sunday, however, there had been yet another sustained change of wind direction, with gusts heading north-west, blowing the ash from the airport and sending some of it over some parts of Rabaul town.
Reports from the Rabaul volcanological observatory have confirmed that the rate of ash fall has decreased since the weekend even though Mt. Tavurvur is still spewing ash.
The observatory said although ash was still rising 1km above the volcano, it was being blown west, away from the Tokua and Kokopo areas.
