Angkasa Pura

Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport

Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport, better known as Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport (IATA: BTJ, ICAO: WITT) is an airport that serves the city of Banda Aceh and its surroundings, which is located in the Blang Bintang District, Aceh Besar, Aceh Province. This airport is managed by PT Angkasa Pura II, to serve domestic and international routes. Currently there are two international flights, namely Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur and Firefly to Penang. The airport was also used as a drug delivery base after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, which traveled back and forth from various regions of the World, to refugees who were isolated in various areas hit by the Tsunami in Aceh. After being hit by the Tsunami on December 26, 2004, the airport has been renovated and has a runway of 3,000 meters that can accommodate wide-body aircraft. On October 9, 2011 a Boeing 747-400 succeeded in taking off and landing, which proved that this airport could be a transit point for international airlines.

The name of the airport is taken from the name of Sultan Iskandar Muda, an Indonesian National hero from Aceh.

Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport was built by the Government of Japan in 1943. At that time, the airport had a runway of 1,400 meters and a width of 30 meters in the form of the letter T from the southern end extending from east to west.

In 1953 Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport (at that time called Blang Bintang Airport) was reopened by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia for the purpose of landing aircraft. The runway is used only the runway runs from South to North 1400 meters. At that time the first plane to land was the Dakota DC-3, and a few years later it was added with the landing of the Convair 240 aircraft.

In 1968, the airport had developed an extension of the 1850 meter runway with a width of 45 meters, and an Apron with dimensions of 90 x 120 meters, so that it had been able to accommodate large aircraft such as the F28 Fokker.

In 1993 and 1994 Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport again experienced developments related to the National MTQ to be held in Banda Aceh, with 2,250 extension platforms x 45 meters, which could accommodate DC-9 and B-737 aircraft and were supported by installations of Radar located on Mount Linteung in approximately 14 km from the airport.

On April 9, 1994 Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport joined PT (Persero) Angkasa Pura II, based on the Letter of the Minister of Finance Number 533 / MK.016 / 1994 and Letter of the Minister of Transportation A. 278 / AU.002 / SKJ / 1994

The proposed change from the name Blang Bintang Airport to Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport is:

Letter of the House of Representatives of the Special Region of Aceh No. 553,2 / 661 dated April 4, 1995
Letter of Governor of Special Region of Aceh No. 553,2 / 8424 dated 11 April 1995
The Decree of the Minister of Transportation Number 20 of 1995 dated May 11, 1995 concerning the change in the name of Blang Bintang Airport to the Airport of Sultan Iskandar Muda.
In 1999, the development continued with Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport by adding 2500 meters of runway length to be able to accommodate A330 aircraft, in order to serve the departure of Hajj Pilgrims in connection with the selection of Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport as one of the embarkation / debarkation of Hajj. The latest development of this airport was in 2009 where the runway length was increased to 3000 meters with a width of 45 meters, the new terminal building replaced the old terminal building. The airport was officially inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on August 20, 2009, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came to Aceh to officially open the fifth annual event of the Aceh Cultural Week (Aceh Cultural Week).