Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport (WITT) serves Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh Province, from a site at Blang Bintang in Aceh Besar Regency some 13.5 km southeast of the city centre. A dual civil-military field with a single long instrument runway, it has a history stretching back to Japanese wartime construction and a prominent role in the 2004 tsunami relief effort.
Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport is the main air gateway to Banda Aceh and the wider Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. It combines a civilian international terminal with the co-located Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base, a Type B facility of the Indonesian Air Force sited southeast of the passenger terminal across the runway. The airport is named after Sultan Iskandar Muda, the twelfth ruler of the Aceh Sultanate, and its long single runway and instrument approach make it a straightforward destination for simulator pilots exploring Sumatra.
The airport lies at Blang Bintang in Aceh Besar Regency, Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, approximately 13.5 km (8.4 miles) southeast of Banda Aceh city centre. It is not situated within the city itself. The field sits at an elevation of 66 ft and shares its site with an operating military air base.
The airport has a single physical runway, 17/35, 9,837 ft long with a hard (asphalt) surface. Both directions are lit, and runway 17 is equipped with an ILS approach.
Air traffic services are provided by AFIS on 122.2 MHz. A tower radio frequency of 658.9 MHz is also listed, along with a Banda Aceh radio facility. Runway 17 offers an ILS approach.
The airport originated as a Japanese-built military airbase in 1943, during the occupation of Indonesia in the Second World War, when it was known as Blangbintang Airport after the district in which it stands. It complemented an earlier Dutch-built airfield at Lhoknga, which the Japanese had seized in 1942; together the two sites became key Japanese strongholds during the war. In its early form the field had a T-shaped runway of 1,400 by 30 metres. Following Japan's surrender the airbase lay dormant for several years, with a large stock of abandoned Japanese weapons eventually falling into the hands of local Acehnese militias. After the Indonesian National Revolution the airport remained inactive until it reopened in 1953, when a DC-3 Dakota became the first aircraft to land. The runway was extended to 1,850 by 45 metres in 1968, and again to 2,250 by 45 metres in 1993 and 1994 ahead of the Musabaqah Tilawatil Quran festival in Banda Aceh, allowing it to accept aircraft such as the Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 737. The airport took its present name in 1995 in honour of Sultan Iskandar Muda. A further extension to 2,500 metres followed in 1999 to accommodate medium-sized widebodies such as the Airbus A330 for Hajj flights to Jeddah. During the insurgency in Aceh the airport served as a launch point for Indonesian Air Force operations against Acehnese rebels, and on 19 May 2003 some 458 Indonesian paratroopers landed near the airport as part of a military offensive. The site sustained damage in the earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004 but escaped direct impact from the waves, allowing it to remain operational; it subsequently became the central hub through which international aid was processed and distributed to affected areas, with the surrounding area used as a temporary refuge for displaced people. In 2016 the airport was named World's Best Airport for Halal Travellers in the World Halal Tourism Awards.
The airport continues to operate as the principal gateway for Banda Aceh and Aceh Province, handling regular domestic services to cities such as Jakarta and Medan alongside international routes to Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia. It remains a joint civil-military facility, sharing its site with the Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base. Terminal expansion took place between 2007 and 2009 to enlarge passenger facilities and supporting infrastructure.