Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Kualanamu International Airport is the principal gateway to Medan and North Sumatra, lying east of the city in Deli Serdang Regency. Opened in 2013 to replace the constrained Polonia Airport, it is now among Indonesia's largest airports, with a single long runway equipped for instrument approaches. For a simulator pilot it offers a substantial ILS-equipped runway and a busy regional and international traffic mix.
Kualanamu International Airport serves the Medan metropolitan area and wider North Sumatra region, replacing the old Polonia International Airport in the heart of Medan, which had become unsafe due to its short runway and surrounding urban development. The airport is operated by PT Angkasa Pura Aviasi, a joint venture between Angkasa Pura II and GMR Airports, and has grown into one of Indonesia's largest and busiest airports, making it an interesting destination for simulator pilots flying long-haul or regional services into Sumatra.
The airport lies in Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, to the east of Medan city centre; sources give distances of roughly 23 to 32 kilometres depending on the measurement point. It was built on the site of a former oil palm plantation and was developed as part of Indonesia's economic development masterplan and as a candidate hub for the ASEAN Single Aviation Market open skies initiative.
Kualanamu has a single physical runway, 05/23, measuring 12,306 feet on a hard surface. It is lit and equipped with an ILS on both alignments, giving instrument approach capability in either direction.
Tower operates on 118.6 MHz, with an ATIS broadcast on 126.3 MHz. The runway is equipped with an ILS.
Planning for a replacement airport for Medan began in 1991, when the then Minister of Transport, Azwar Anas, stated that a new airport would be built outside the city for safety reasons. Preparatory work started in 1997 but was delayed by the Asian Financial Crisis. Land acquisition for the 1,365-hectare site took place between 1995 and 1997, with full rights held by PT Angkasa Pura II from 1999, though illegal agricultural use of parts of the land continued until compensation agreements were reached. Momentum for the project increased after the Mandala Airlines Flight 091 accident in September 2005, which occurred shortly after take-off from Polonia and killed North Sumatra's incumbent governor, Tengku Rizal Nurdin, and his predecessor Raja Inal Siregar, as well as at least fifty people on the ground, a consequence of Polonia's short runway and its proximity to dense residential areas. Construction resumed on 29 June 2006, close to the first anniversary of that crash, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla laying the first cornerstone. The airport was soft-opened to the public on 25 July 2013, with its first commercial arrival being a Garuda Indonesia ferry flight from Jakarta, and it was formally inaugurated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 27 March 2014. The name Kualanamu combines the Malay/Indonesian word for river mouth, 'kuala', with the Karonese word for deep sea, 'namu' or 'namo', giving the meaning 'meeting point'; it is one of the few Indonesian airports not named after a national hero, and the name may also have been influenced by Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Kualanamu is now the third-largest airport in Indonesia by terminal size, after Soekarno-Hatta and Kertajati, and one of the country's busiest, having been the first Indonesian airport to receive a four-star Skytrax rating. It functions as an international transit hub for western Indonesia and was an early candidate for the ASEAN Single Aviation Market open skies arrangement. The airport was the first in Indonesia to introduce a fully automatic baggage handling system. Since July 2022, commercial operations have been run under a joint venture between Angkasa Pura and GMR Airports, which has restored and expanded route networks, including new international services, and the airport has recorded a high Airport Service Quality score under this management.