Angkasa Pura

Minangkabau International Airport

Minangkabau International Airport (English: Minangkabau International Airport, Minang language: Minangkabau Udaro International Airport) (IATA: PDG, ICAO: WIPT) or commonly abbreviated as BIM is the main international airport in West Sumatra province which serves flights for Padang City. The airport is approximately 23 km from the center of Padang City and is located in the Ketaping area, Batang Anai District, Padang Pariaman Regency. Minangkabau International Airport was built in 2002 and fully operated on July 22, 2005 replacing Tabing Airport. BIM is the only airport in the world that uses ethnic names.

In 2006, the airport was established by the Ministry of Religion as a place of embarkation and debarkation of Hajj for the provinces of West Sumatra, Bengkulu and parts of Jambi. Since January 1, 2012, the airport's operating hours have been extended by PT Angkasa Pura II until 00.00 WIB, which was previously only opened until 21.00 WIB.

Minangkabau International Airport was built as a substitute for Tabing Airport, which has no longer fulfilled the requirements in terms of flight safety after 34 years of use. The construction of this airport began in 2001 at a cost of around 9.4 billion Yen, with 10% of it (around 97.6 billion Rupiah) a soft loan from the Japan Bank International Corporation (JICB). The construction involved contractor Shimizu and Marubeni J.O. from Japan, and Adhi Karya from Indonesia.

The Minangkabau International Airport stands on a land of 4.27 km² with a runway of 3,000 meters with a width of 45 meters. Domestic and international flights are served by terminals covering an area of ​​20,568 m², which has a capacity of around 2.3 million passengers each year. In 2017, the airport will be expanded in two stages to reach 49,000 m². With the development, it will be able to accommodate around 5.9 million passengers per year.

This airport is the second airport in Indonesia after Soekarno-Hatta whose construction was carried out from the beginning. The airport development master plan is carried out in three stages, the second phase begins in 2010. After all stages have been completed, the airport runway will be extended to 3,600 meters, which is also equipped with parallel taxiways along the runway.

A number of flights served by the airport are the same as the previous airport, namely Tabing Airport. For domestic flights, including Jakarta, Surabaya, Batam, Medan, Bengkulu, Sungaipenuh, Sipora and Bandung. While for international flights, namely with Kuala Lumpur. Flights to Singapore serviced by Tigerair Mandala are closed after several months of operation due to the low passenger load rate.

Minangkabau International Airport can accommodate Airbus A300 aircraft, Airbus A319, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, ATR 72, Boeing 747, Boeing 777, and McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Completeness of facilities that are far different from Tabing Airport, proved to stimulate flight activity at this airport. Until now, there have been five national airlines and one foreign airline operating at this airport.