The authors report on the achievement of a vertically oriented three pair airgap/GaN distributed Bragg reflector realized by controlled oxidation and wet-chemical etching of AlInN sacrificial layers. Microreflectivity measurements exhibit high peak reflectivity values of 87% around 500 nm after the oxidation process and 90% around 600 nm after the etching process ill overall good agreement with simulations. The broad stopband of airgap/GaN mirrors, about 250 nm wide. results from the strong refractive index contrast between air and GaN layers. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3259720]