Komodo Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Komodo) is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

near the town of

Labuan Bajo Labuan Bajo is a fishing town located at the western end of the large island of Flores in the Nusa Tenggara region of east Indonesia. It is the capital of the West Manggarai Regency ''(Kabupaten Manggarai Barat)'', one of the eight regencies which ...

on the island of

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

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 ...

province, Indonesia. The airport's name comes from Labuan Bajo's status as a departure point for tours to the nearby

Komodo National Park Komodo National Park ( Indonesian: ''Taman Nasional Komodo'') is a national park in Indonesia located within the Lesser Sunda Islands in the border region between the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara. The park includes the ...

, home of the

Komodo dragon The Komodo dragon (''Varanus komodoensis''), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant ...

. It was formerly known as Mutiara II Airport, not to be confused with Mutiara Airport located near the city of

Palu Palu, which is officially known as the City of Palu (Indonesian: ''Kota Palu''), is the capital and largest city of Central Sulawesi. Palu is located on the northwestern coast of Sulawesi and borders Donggala Regency to the north and west, Pari ...

in Indonesia's

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

province. In September 2013 the first

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...

landed and took off successfully.

Facilities

On 27 December 2015, President

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elite ...

inaugurated a new modern terminal at the airport. The larger terminal will be able to provide passenger services for up to 1.5 million passengers per year compared with the capacity of the old terminal of around 150,000 passengers per annum. The new infrastructure is thus expected to encourage a marked increase in the number of tourists coming to the island of Flores and its surroundings. The airport is at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 17/35 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surface measuring . In addition, the foundation also extended runway with a length of 2,250 meters and a width of 45 meters which can accommodate aircraft jet medium class such as the Airbus A320, Boeing 737-800, and Boeing 737-900ER. Previously the airport was only able to accommodate smaller aircraft such as the ATR 72 propeller aircraft. It is estimated that 16 aircraft can land and take off each day with the expansion of the runway. In the future this service will also be sought to operate 24 hours.

Expansion

Indonesia's publicly listed PT Cardig Aero Service (CAS Group) air transportation service company and Changi Airports International (CAI), a subsidiary of Singapore's Changi Airport Group – had won the public-private partnership (PPP) tender for the Komodo Airport expansion project, which has an estimated investment value of Rp 1.2 trillion (US$85.82 million). The airport will be operated by the consortium for 25 years and then handed it to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Transportation Ministry. Komodo garuda

The airport is expected to accommodate up to 4 million passengers per year. The runway will also be extended from 2,250 meters to 2,750 meters, while the apron area is expanded to 20,200 square meters. The domestic terminal will be expanded to 6,500 square meters, and an international terminal will be built with an area of 5,538 square meters with several other supporting facilities.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Incidents

On September 14, 2011, an

Aviastar Aviastar-TU Airlines (russian: Авиастар-ТУ) is a cargo charter airline which operates principally out of Ramenskoye Airport in Moscow, Russia. Its headquarters is located in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast. History The airline began operatin ...

aircraft hit a group of cows upon landing at Komodo Airport slightly damaging the forward part of the aircraft. Airport officers on motorcycles had attempted to drive the cows away before the aircraft landed.

References

External links

Komodo Airport - Indonesia Airport Global Website
* * {{authority control Airports in East Nusa Tenggara