Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Wamena Airport (WAVV) sits high in the Baliem Valley of Highland Papua, Indonesia, at over 5,400 feet elevation, and serves as the principal gateway for both passengers and cargo into the Papuan highlands. Its single grass runway, mountain-ringed setting and history as a missionary and military airstrip make it a striking and demanding destination for the virtual VFR pilot.
Wamena Airport lies in Jayawijaya Regency, Highland Papua, about a kilometre from the town centre of Wamena itself, and is the largest and busiest airfield in the Papuan highlands. It is the principal point of entry to the Baliem Valley and the only airport in the region capable of handling narrow-body aircraft, making it the aviation hub for Jayawijaya, Lanny Jaya and Tolikara. For a simulator pilot the appeal lies in its dramatic high-altitude, mountain-enclosed position and its long history as a frontier airstrip.
The airfield sits within the Baliem Valley, surrounded by the high terrain of the Papuan central highlands, roughly a kilometre from Wamena's town centre. It functions as the main aerial link for Jayawijaya Regency and the neighbouring regencies of Lanny Jaya and Tolikara.
Wamena has a single physical runway, 15/33, 7,142 feet long with a grass surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS.
Wamena has an AFIS service on 120 MHz, with the tower also operating on 120 MHz. An ATIS broadcast, callsign Wamena ATIS, is provided on 127.2 MHz. No published navaids or instrument approaches are noted for the field.
The airfield lies about one kilometre from Wamena's town centre within the Baliem Valley, itself a distinctive landmark bounded by high mountain terrain, and this valley setting is the principal visual reference for pilots approaching the field.
The airstrip's origins trace to 1954, when American missionaries reached the Baliem Valley, then part of Netherlands New Guinea, landing by light aircraft on the Baliem River near Minimo village to begin missionary work among the Dani people. Over the following months they built the first airstrip in the area, and a later, more suitable site near the Mukoko people's territory became the location that developed into today's Wamena Airport. In 1958 the Dutch colonial administration established a government post beside the airstrip, and by 1960 regular air services had begun in response to growing numbers of visitors to the valley; by 1961 De Kroonduif, a KLM subsidiary, was flying four weekly Douglas DC-3 services between Hollandia (Jayapura) and Wamena. Following the 1963 transfer of Netherlands New Guinea to Indonesia, the Jayapura-Wamena route passed to Merpati Nusantara Airlines. President Suharto later ordered the runway upgraded to take aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules as part of the development of West Irian, a project supported by the Indonesian Navy, Air Force and Army Corps of Engineers; the runway was extended from 1,400 to 1,900 metres, and the first C-130 landed on 22 August 1970. Management passed from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Ministry of Transportation on 2 April 1977, by which time the field could already handle Fokker F27 aircraft. On 1 August 2000 around 100 members of a pro-independence militia seized the airport amid rumours of refugee arrivals, holding it for several days until police restored control on 5 August 2000. In the early hours of 26 September 2011 the terminal building was destroyed by fire, believed to have been caused by a short circuit.
Wamena Airport remains the primary aviation hub for the Papuan highlands, handling scheduled services to Jayapura and Timika as well as numerous pioneer routes into remote highland communities. It serves as an operating base for Susi Air, and is also used by Trigana Air Service and Wings Air.