El Tari International Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional El Tari) is an airport in

Kupang Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest ci ...

East Nusa Tenggara East Nusa Tenggara ( id, Nusa Tenggara Timur – NTT; pt, Sonda Oriental) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the nor ...

, Indonesia. The airport is named after El Tari (1926–1978), the governor of

from 1966 to 1978. The airport's ICAO code was changed from WRKK to WATT in 2004. As of December 2018, there were at least 258 outbound flights per week from the airport.

Development

The airport is currently undergoing an expansion program. Two aero-bridge will be added and the terminal area will be expanded from current 7,400 square meters to 15,900 square meters. The terminal will be built into two floors with waiting rooms at the upper floor.

Airlines and destinations

The airport used to serve international routes to

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

and Darwin. International routes were suspended in the 1990s due to alleged human rights violations by the

Indonesian Armed Forces , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo ...

in East Timor.The Kupang-Dili route was resumed on 15 December 2017, operated by

Air Timor Air Timor (Air Timor S.A.) is a travel company based in Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste). It operates as an airline, and as of October 2019 it provided services from Dili to Kupang under a charter arrangement with TransNusa, and to Singapore under ...

Passenger

Accidents and incidents

* On 27 November 2009,

Batavia Air PT. Metro Batavia, operating as Batavia Air, was an airline based in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Surabaya. Until January 31, 2013, the airline operated domestic flights to around 42 destinations and several nearby regional international ...

Flight 711, operated by a

Boeing 737-400 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

made an emergency landing after a problem was discovered with the landing gear. * On 2 December 2009,

Merpati Nusantara Airlines PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, operating as Merpati Nusantara Airlines, was an airline in Indonesia based in Central Jakarta, Jakarta. It operated scheduled domestic services to more than 25 destinations in Indonesia, as well as scheduled intern ...

Fokker 100 The Fokker 100 is a regional jet produced by Fokker in the Netherlands. The Fokker 100 is based on the Fokker F28 with a fuselage stretched by to seat up to 109 passengers, up from 85. It is powered by two newer Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans, ...

PK-MJD made an emergency landing when the left main gear failed to extend. There were no injuries among the passengers and crew. * On 10 June 2013, Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 6517, a

Xian MA60 The Xian MA60 (新舟60, ''Xīnzhōu liùshí'', "Modern Ark 60") is a turboprop-powered airliner produced by China's Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). The MA60 is a stretched versio ...

operated by

suffered a structural failure and crashed on the runway after a hard landing. No one was killed in the crash, but 25 people were injured. 5, including the Captain, was seriously injured. An investigation by the NTSC found that the pilot moved the throttle to the way back, causing the aircraft to lose lift. The crash was the second hull loss of a Xi'an MA60 operated by Merpati. * On 21 December 2015 a Kalstar Aviation Embraer ERJ-195 PK-KDC operating a flight from Ende to Surabaya via Kupang overshot the runway at El Tari Airport in

References

External links

* * {{authority control Kupang Airports in East Nusa Tenggara Indonesian Air Force bases