Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Pattimura International Airport (WAPP/AMQ) serves Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province, from the settlement of Laha some 38 kilometres west of the city centre. It is the principal gateway to the Maluku Islands and shares its site with an Indonesian Air Force base, making it a distinctive mixed civil-military field for the visiting VFR pilot.
Pattimura Airport lies at Laha, on the western side of Ambon Island in Maluku Province, Indonesia, and is the busiest airport in the Maluku Islands. It is operated by InJourney Airports (formerly Angkasa Pura I) and takes its name from Thomas Matulessy, better known as Pattimura, the Indonesian national hero who led resistance against Dutch colonial forces in the nineteenth century. For a simulator pilot the field is notable both for its single long runway serving heavy jet traffic and for the Pattimura Air Force Base that occupies the far side of the strip, giving the airfield a strong military as well as civil character.
The airport sits at Laha, roughly 38 kilometres west of Ambon's city centre, on Ambon Island in Maluku Province. Pattimura Air Force Base, a Type B installation of the Indonesian Air Force, is located southeast of the passenger terminal, across the runway from it, so pilots should expect mixed civil and military traffic in the vicinity.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 04/22, aligned north-east/south-west. It is 8,202 feet long with a hard (asphalt) surface and is lit. Runway 04 is equipped with an ILS approach. Field elevation is 33 feet.
Ambon Approach is available on 121 MHz. The Automatic Terminal Information Service, callsign Ambon Info, is broadcast on 125.4 MHz and also listed on 891.8 MHz. Ambon Tower operates on 122.2 MHz. An ILS is provided for runway 04.
The airfield was established by the Dutch colonial government in 1939 as Laha Airfield and served as a base for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (ML-KNIL). Recognising its strategic value ahead of a possible Japanese invasion, the Dutch reinforced it in 1941 with troops from Java, and Australia, aware that its capture would let Japanese aircraft threaten the Australian mainland, sent forces to help defend it. Before the Japanese landing at Ambon in 1942 the airfield was held by two companies of the Australian 2/21st Battalion together with around 300 Dutch troops, backed by Dutch field, anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. Allied air assets were limited: the ML-KNIL's No. 2 Flight, Group IV brought Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters from Java, losing two en route, while the RAAF contributed twelve Lockheed Hudson Mk II bombers from No. 13 and No. 2 Squadrons, split between Laha and Namlea on Buru. Japanese troops landed at Ambon on 30 January 1942 and attacked the airfield from the following day. Despite repelling several assaults, the defenders were overwhelmed by a major Japanese offensive at dawn on 2 February, and by mid-morning only around 150 Australian troops and a handful of KNIL personnel remained combat-effective; they surrendered shortly afterward. In the aftermath, Japanese naval personnel executed more than 300 Australian and Dutch prisoners in four separate massacres around the airfield, none of whom survived. After the war, 93 Japanese personnel were tried by an Australian military tribunal in Ambon for these war crimes, with several convicted and executed. Aircraft based at Ambon under Japanese occupation took part in the air raids on Darwin, Australia, on 19 February 1942. After Indonesian independence the airfield returned to military use under the Indonesian Air Force, and during the Permesta rebellion of the 1950s it was bombed repeatedly by the Permesta Air Force, which received covert American support; the American CIA pilot Allen Lawrence Pope flew missions against the base during these attacks. Civil management passed to Angkasa Pura I on 11 October 1995, and the airport's first international service, to Darwin operated by Airnorth, began in 1975.
Pattimura Airport remains the main air gateway to Ambon and the Maluku Islands, handling regular domestic services to major Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya and Makassar as well as regional flights within Maluku. It previously operated international services to Darwin, Australia, and although these have been discontinued, and the airport's international status was briefly revoked in 2024 before being reinstated the following year, the terminal retains immigration, quarantine and tax facilities for international operations. The airport continues to share its site with Pattimura Air Force Base, a Type B Indonesian Air Force installation situated across the runway from the passenger terminal.