Juwata International Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional Juwata) is an international

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 ...

Tarakan Tarakan is an island and the largest city of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. The island city is located in northern Borneo, midway along the coast of the province. The city boundaries are co-extensive with the island (including a co ...

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawak t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is located on the island of

which is off the coast of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. The airport was the main

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

objective during the

Battle of Tarakan (1945) The Battle of Tarakan was the first stage in the Borneo campaign, Borneo campaign of 1945. It began with an amphibious landing by Allied forces on 1 May, code-named Operation Oboe One; the Allied ground forces were drawn mainly from the Australian ...

. The airport is planned to be a transit hub for people from other countries such as

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

and

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

who is going to travel to other cities in Indonesia. Juwata Airport is a destination point of the ASEAN Single Aviation Market under Protocol I and II. The airport area and runway is also shared with Suharnoko Harbani Air Force Base, a Type A airbase of the TNI-AU (Indonesian Air Force). The airbase is named after the former

Minister of Industry The industry minister is a cabinet position in a government. The title may refer to the head of the governmental department that specializes in industry. This position may also be responsible for trade and employment, areas that fall under the mini ...

of Indonesia, Suharnoko Harbani, who was also formerly an Air Force officer. Formed in 2006, the establishment of this air base is essentially part of the strategy and efforts to realize the defense of the country from the potential and development of threats that will threaten the Indonesia as well as the organization's demands from the Air Force Operations Command II in

Makassar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...

to facilitate control of its duties. Before the formation of the Air Base, there was already an Indonesian Air Force post which was under the Balikpapan Air Force Base but due to the development of situation and tension with Malaysia in

Ambalat Ambalat is a sea block in the Celebes sea located off the east coast of Borneo. It lies to the east of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan and to the south-east of the Malaysian state of Sabah, and it is the subject of a territorial disp ...

, the leadership of the Air Force decided to form a new airbase. Due to the airport is used both by military and civil aviation, so the apron is also used together. In July 2014, the airport authority initials to build 183 meters taxiway to the military apron which can accommodate 4 Sukhoi and 2 Hercules together and the project is predicted to be finished in December 2014. During the

2010 Tarakan riot The Tarakan riot was an ethnic riot which occurred between September 27 and September 29, 2010 in the city of Tarakan, North Kalimantan, Indonesia. The riot pitched native Tidung people against Bugis migrants. It was triggered by the death of a T ...

, negotiation between communities to end the conflict was held here.

History

Juwata Airport was built during the Dutch colonial period and was used as a military base for Dutch warplanes. On January 11, 1942, Juwata Airport was also recorded as part of history, as the place where the first Japanese army fighter aircraft landed in Indonesia. After independence, the airport initially operated as a pioneer airport using only small planes and in early 2000, Juwata Airport was upgraded to an airport with a runway length of 1,850 meters, allowing the airport to accommodate mid-sized jets such as the

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...

. Due to its strategic geographical location, the airport was one of the earliest international airport in Kalimantan, with routes to Zamboanga in the

and

Tawau Tawau (, Jawi: , ), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is located on the Semporna Peninsula in the southeast coast of t ...

since the early 1970s.

Terminal

Juwata Airport has a runway area of 2,250 x 45 meters, 2 taxiways of area 82 m x 23 m each with another taxiway of area 176.59 m x 23 m connecting to the air force base. The airport have been developed both on the air side and the ground side. On the air side of the apron has been expanded from the original 335 m x 70 m into 335 m x 97 m. While on the land side of the passenger terminal has been greatly expanded into 12 440 m2 from the original 2,532 m2. Vehicle parking facility was also expanded into an area of 14,000 m2 from the original 1000 m2. The capacity of the airport also increased The old terminal was previously only able to serve 600 passengers daily, while the new terminal are able to serve 2,000 passengers daily. The new terminal was officially inaugurated on 23 March 2016 by 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 ...

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo airlines

References

External links

* {{Airports in Indonesia Airports in North Kalimantan Indonesian Air Force bases