Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport serves Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, from the Talang Betutu district some 10 km north of the city centre. It is a joint civil-military field, sharing its single long runway with the Indonesian Air Force's Sri Mulyono Herlambang Air Base, and its history stretches back to the Dutch colonial era and the Battle of Palembang in 1942.
Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport is the principal gateway to Palembang and South Sumatra, handling domestic and some international traffic while also hosting the Sri Mulyono Herlambang Air Force Base directly across the runway from the civil terminal. Named after the last Sultan of Palembang, a revered Indonesian national hero, the field has a long and eventful history stretching back to the Dutch colonial period, and for a sim pilot it offers an interesting mix of a substantial ILS-equipped runway, co-located military operations, and a setting steeped in Second World War history.
The airport lies in the Talang Betutu district of Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia, approximately 10 km from the city centre. It shares its runway infrastructure with the Sri Mulyono Herlambang Air Force Base, a Type B facility of the Indonesian Air Force situated directly across the runway from the passenger terminal, so pilots should expect mixed civil and military traffic in the vicinity.
The airport has a single physical runway, 11/29, measuring 9,817 ft and surfaced in hard standing. It is lit and equipped with an ILS, making it usable for night and instrument operations by a wide range of aircraft types.
Palembang Approach operates on 119.2 MHz, with ATIS broadcast on 127.2 MHz. Palembang Info is available on 341.6 MHz, and the tower, callsign Mahmud Tower, operates on 118.1 MHz. The field elevation is 43 ft, and the runway is equipped with ILS.
The site began as an empty plantation plot acquired by the Dutch East Indies government through the Palembang Maatschappij in 1920, becoming Palembang's first airfield, Talang Betutu Airfield, after a Dutch pilot, Jan Pieterszoon, landed a Fokker aircraft there from Europe. The airfield assumed major strategic importance in the Second World War: in January 1942 the Allied ABDACOM command established it as the key airfield 'P1' near Palembang, alongside a secret base at Prabumulih, and it became a prime target for Japanese forces alongside the nearby Royal Dutch Shell refineries at Pladju. In February 1942, during the Battle of Palembang, Japanese paratroopers under Colonel Seiichi Kume captured the airfield from its KNIL defenders, who were heavily outnumbered. The Japanese subsequently extended the runway between 1942 and 1943 using Allied prisoners of war, and the airfield remained a target for Allied air raids for the rest of the war. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the field passed to returning Dutch forces and served as a stronghold and supply base during the Indonesian National Revolution. It opened for civilian use as Talang Betutu Airport on 1 January 1950 following Indonesian independence, and was later renamed Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in honour of the sultan who led Palembang Darussalam from 1803 to 1819. The airport was substantially expanded ahead of Palembang's co-hosting of the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, when its size was doubled to accommodate the increase in traffic. The field has also seen its share of incidents, including the crash of a Garuda Fokker F28-1000, Flight 150, on approach to the airport.
The airport continues to operate as the main air gateway to Palembang and South Sumatra, handling domestic services to cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Yogyakarta, with international connections to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore; international status was briefly revoked in 2024 due to a lack of international operations before being reinstated the following year. It serves as an operating base for Lion Air and continues to share its runway with the Indonesian Air Force's Sri Mulyono Herlambang Air Base, which typically hosts the annual Super Garuda Shield exercise conducted jointly with the United States.
