Departure
92%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Hang Nadim International Airport (WIDD) serves Batam, the largest city in Indonesia's Riau Islands, and is best known for possessing the longest runway in the country. Originally built to provide a diversion field for Singapore Changi Airport, it now handles a substantial mix of domestic and limited international traffic and shares its site with an Indonesian Air Force base.
Hang Nadim International Airport lies on Batam Island in Riau Islands province, Indonesia, and takes its name from Laksamana Hang Nadim Pahlawan Kechik, a legendary Malay warrior of the region. It is operated as a joint civil-military facility, sharing its runway and apron with Hang Nadim Air Force Base, a Type-C installation of the Indonesian Air Force. For a simulator pilot the field is notable chiefly for its enormous single runway, built with sufficient length and strength to accept wide-body aircraft up to and including the Airbus A380, a legacy of its original design purpose as an emergency diversion airport for Singapore Changi, some 30 kilometres to the north.
The airport sits at Batu Besar in the Nongsa district of Batam, close to the Riau Islands' northern coastline facing Singapore. For much of its planning history the airspace over the Riau Archipelago was managed by Singapore under an ICAO Flight Information Region arrangement dating to a 1946 Dublin convention, a legacy that shaped early discussions over the airport's siting. Approach control in the area is provided as Tanjung Pinang APP, with area control handled by Singapore ACC.
The airport has a single physical runway, 04/22, of asphalt (hard surface) construction, 13,208 feet long and lit along its length. Runway 04 is equipped with an ILS approach. Field elevation is 98 feet.
Radio services at Hang Nadim include ACC on 120.3 MHz (Singapore), approach control (Tanjung Pinang APP) on 130.2 MHz, ATIS on 126.25 MHz, ground and clearance delivery on 121.75 MHz, and tower on both 118.7 MHz (primary) and 118.3 MHz (secondary). Runway 04 is served by an ILS approach.
Planning for an airport at Batam began in the early 1970s under Pertamina's Phase I development of the island, with an initial site proposed near Tanjung Uncang on Batam's western side; this was abandoned after Singapore objected on the grounds of potential airspace conflict with its own operations at Paya Lebar. Survey work resumed around 1976 under the Batam Authority with the involvement of Singaporean consultant Robin Ednasa, leading to selection of the Batu Besar site. B.J. Habibie, then head of the Batam Authority, directed that the airport be named after Hang Nadim to reflect local Malay heritage. The airport opened in 1978 with a modest 850-metre runway suitable only for Twin Otters, Skyvans and helicopters, and a simple terminal and control tower built largely of plywood. Garuda Indonesia began weekly services soon after, growing to daily flights by 1984. The runway was later extended to 3,600 by 45 metres during a second development phase, and the airport was elevated to national airport status in 1985 and international status in 1990, with a formal international inauguration in December 1995 attended by Habibie, who set out plans for the site to grow into an 'aerocity' with supporting facilities including an aircraft maintenance centre.
Hang Nadim is now the primary air gateway to Batam and the second-busiest airport in Sumatra after Kualanamu in Medan, handling flights to major Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Balikpapan, together with international services to Malaysia and seasonal Hajj charters to Saudi Arabia. The airport moved to round-the-clock, 24-hour operation by the end of May 2014 as several airlines, including Lion Air, established it as an operating base. An aircraft maintenance facility on site is being developed into a wider maintenance hub, and the airport continues to share its runway and infrastructure with Hang Nadim Air Force Base.