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Dortheys Hiyo Eluay International Airport, better known to most pilots as Sentani International Airport, serves Jayapura in Indonesia's Papua province on the island of New Guinea. Built on the site of a major Japanese and later American airfield complex from the Second World War, it remains the busiest airport in Western New Guinea and the principal gateway to the province's remote interior. Its long ILS-equipped runway, set beside Lake Sentani beneath the Cyclops Mountains, makes it a striking and historically rich destination for the simulator pilot.
Sentani International Airport, formally named Dortheys Hiyo Eluay International Airport, lies at Sentani in Jayapura Regency, Papua province, Indonesia, and is the main air gateway to the Indonesian half of New Guinea. It is operated as a public airport under InJourney Airports and shares its site with Silas Papare Air Force Base, a Type-A Indonesian Air Force installation southwest of the passenger terminal. Despite its international designation it currently handles only domestic traffic, acting as the hub for onward flights to remote interior settlements across Western New Guinea, which gives it an unusually varied and interesting traffic mix for a VFR visitor.
The airport sits in the town of Sentani, within Sentani District of Jayapura Regency, Papua, roughly 40 km from downtown Jayapura. It lies close to Lake Sentani, from which the field takes its everyday name, and beneath the Cyclops Mountains, which rise close to the field and constrain the local terrain. As the easternmost airport in Indonesia, it forms an isolated but important node of controlled airspace serving both civil and military traffic sharing the same site.
The airport has a single physical runway, 12/30, of 9,814 feet with a hard surface and runway lighting. An ILS is provided for approaches to runway 30.
Jayapura Approach is available on 119.1 MHz, with ATIS broadcast on 128.8 MHz and an information service, Jayapura Info, on 295.6 MHz. Sentani Tower provides the tower service on 118.1 MHz. The runway 30 ILS supports instrument approaches into the field.
Lake Sentani, immediately adjacent to the airport, is the most prominent visual feature for pilots inbound to the field, while the Cyclops Mountains rising close to the runway provide a distinctive backdrop and a significant terrain consideration on departure and arrival.
The Sentani area was occupied by Japanese forces in early 1942 during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War, and by October 1943 a major airfield complex had been built here, with a western runway of 4,500 feet and a southern runway of 6,200 feet, defended by anti-aircraft guns and served by dozens of aircraft revetments. The airfields were heavily bombed by the US Fifth Air Force and were captured by American forces during the Battle of Hollandia on 26 April 1944, reportedly at the cost of only four Allied aircraft. The original Japanese-built strip was only lightly compacted and proved difficult for heavily loaded Allied bombers to use safely so close to the Cyclops Mountains, prompting American engineers to build a stronger, widened runway capable of supporting aircraft up to ten times heavier than the Japanese Zero fighters it was designed for, including B-29 Superfortresses. Under American control the wider Hollandia complex, comprising Hollandia, Sentani and Cyclops airfields, became a major command hub and briefly served as the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur ahead of the liberation of the Philippines. Of the wartime airfields, only Sentani remains in use today, the Hollandia and Cyclops strips having been abandoned and absorbed into vegetation and urban expansion respectively. The airport's official name commemorates Theys Hiyo Eluay, a Papuan politician and Sentani tribal figure, following a 2020 proposal by the then Governor of Papua.
Sentani today is the largest and busiest airport in Western New Guinea and on the island of New Guinea as a whole, functioning as the principal hub for pioneer routes into the remote interior of Papua as well as connections to major Indonesian cities such as Jakarta and Makassar and to other Western New Guinea centres including Biak, Sorong and Merauke. It is a base for several Indonesian carriers including Susi Air and Trigana Air, as well as Jayawijaya Dirgantara, and it continues to host Silas Papare Air Force Base alongside its civil operations. Although it retains international-airport status, it does not currently operate international flights.
