Sisingamangaraja XII International Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional Sisingamangaraja XII) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

located in Silangit,

North Tapanuli North Tapanuli Regency (''Tapanuli Utara'' - in Indonesian, "utara" means "north") is a landlocked regency in North Sumatra province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Its capital is Tarutung. The regency covers an area of 3,793.71 square kilometres and it had ...

North Sumatra North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...

, Indonesia.Silangit Airport
at the Ministry of Transportation The airport was known as Silangit International Airport, and was later named after

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...

warrior and King

Sisingamangaraja XII Patuan Bosar Sinambela ''ginoar'' Ompu Pulo Batu, better known as Si Singamangaraja XII (184917 June 1907), was the last priest-king of the Batak peoples of north Sumatra. In the course of fighting a lengthy guerrilla war against the Dutch colon ...

(1849–1907) in 2018. The airport serves as the main gateway to the nearby

Lake Toba Lake Toba ( id, Danau Toba) ( Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of a supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the ...

as well as the surrounding area. The airport is aimed at increasing air connectivity to support economic and tourism growth at this lake, which was included in Indonesia's 10 new emerging destinations. The airport is located about from

Parapat Parapat, also known as the City of Parapat, is a small town in North Sumatra province on the edge of Lake Toba, on the Uluan Peninsula where it forms the narrowest eastern link to Samosir Island. It is the primary transit point by ferry for visi ...

town. Passengers can use online-enabled transportation like Grab to connect to nearby towns. The airport was named as the best airport in

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

in 2020 (under 2 million passengers per annum) by

Airports Council International Airports Council International (ACI) is an organization of airport authorities aimed at unifying industry practices for airport standards. Established in 1991, its headquarters (ACI World) are based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and its members ...

History

Silangit Airport was originally built during the Japanese occupation era. The development of this airport began in 1995 by extending the runway from the original 900 meters to 1,400 meters. In March 2005, President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...

inaugurated the operation of Silangit Airport. Since then, the airport started developing rapidly. In 2011, the airport eventually had a 2,400 meter runway, which again extended in 2015 to 2,650 meter (8,700 × 150 ft) to accommodate wide-bodied airplanes on a regular basis. The airport became an international airport on 28 October 2017 with the first charter flight to Singapore, operated by Garuda Indonesia.

Development

Due to an increase in tourism growth, the government has upgraded the airport's facilities, such as building a new terminal, lengthening the runway and widening the apron. With the inauguration of the well equipped and modern terminal on 15 September 2017, the airport can provide a more comfortable environment for its passengers. The development of the airport also involves the expansion of the terminal from a capacity of 36,500 passengers per year to 1 million passengers per year. The airport’s passenger terminal encompasses an area of 500 square meters and will be expanded to 1,700 m2. The new terminal also includes several new installations that did not exist in the old terminal, such as Customs, Immigration and Quarantine. This was done so that the airport can serve international flights beginning in the subsequent year. Developments to the Medan-Tebing Tinggi-Parapat toll road are also undergoing, easing access to the airport. The development of the Siantar-Danau Toba railway was expected be fully operational in 2019. This was expected to cut the trip from Medan to Parapat to 3.5 hours.

Facilities

The airport has full digital based services, which includes digital airport bus schedules, e-payment systems, a wifi.id corner and smart baggage claim – a facility to monitor the position of passengers' baggage. The airport is also equipped with tourism information kiosks that give a wide range of information about activities in the nearby area.

Runway

The airport has a runway of , which was extended from the original 2,400 meters in 2016 to accommodate larger aircraft and eventually to boost tourism growth in the region.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

References

{{authority control Airports in North Sumatra