José Agustinho da Silva, said the government had secured investment of US$42 million from the Japanese government to start construction. The expansion will mean re-direction of international flights to new airports in Oecusse and Suai.

The PED outlines an extension of the runway at Nicolou Lobato Airport and construction of a new terminal to adapt it to managing up to one million passengers per year by 2020.

Consultants have said that expansion from current 1,850 metre to 3,000 metre runway is needed to receive long haul aircrafts. The airport currently serves only 120-seat airplanes.

The expansion of the airport is expected to cause relocation for thousands of villagers of of Anin Fuik, Beto Tasi, Terra Santa and Rosaria, home to more than 1,000 families, in Cormora.

The Suai airport received its first international flight on September 28, 2018 from Darwin.