Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Broome International Airport lies immediately west of Broome town in the far north of Western Australia, serving as the principal gateway to the Kimberley region. It is a Class D controlled aerodrome with a single sealed runway long enough to handle regional jets, and its history stretches back to the earliest days of Australian aviation and through a dramatic wartime attack. For the VFR sim pilot it offers a straightforward but historically rich destination on the remote northwest coast.
Broome International Airport serves the town of Broome on the Kimberley coast of Western Australia and functions as the regional hub for the northwest of the state, often described as the gateway to the Kimberley. It handles domestic services to Perth and other Western Australian centres, and has at times hosted seasonal international charter and low-cost carrier flights to Singapore. For a simulator pilot it is an interesting stop combining a long sealed runway, a genuine wartime history, and a remote coastal setting.
The airport sits about 0.4 nautical miles west of the Broome General Post Office. Since 18 November 2010 it has been classified as a Class D non-radar controlled aerodrome, meaning air traffic controllers separate aircraft using pilot position reports and altitude reports rather than radar tracking.
Broome has a single physical runway, 10/28, oriented east-west. Runway 28 is 7,660 feet long and Runway 10 is 7,612 feet long; both are hard-surfaced and lit. There is no ILS at the field, and field elevation is 39 feet.
The published frequencies are ATIS on 126.55 MHz, CTAF on 126 MHz, and FSS on 123.9 MHz, with Brisbane Centre providing the overlying en-route service.
As a Class D non-radar controlled aerodrome, arriving and departing traffic is separated by controllers using pilot-reported positions and altitudes rather than radar, so accurate position and altitude reporting on the appropriate frequency is important when operating in the vicinity.
The airport lies close to Broome town itself, just west of the Broome General Post Office, making the town and coastline useful references when inbound. Macpherson Road forms the main approach to the airport site from the town.
The airfield began life in 1921 as an unpaved sand airmail strip before being relocated to its present site in 1935. On the morning of 3 March 1942 it was attacked by Japanese aircraft as part of a wider campaign against northern Australia and the Dutch East Indies; the raid killed at least 88 people and destroyed at least 22 aircraft on the ground and in the adjacent harbour, many of which had been evacuating civilians and wounded from the Dutch East Indies. Wreckage from the attack is preserved and can still be viewed at the Broome Historical Museum. A dedicated international terminal was built in 1993 to process the growing number of Singapore charter visitors, who had begun arriving on Boeing 767 flights from March 1992. The runway was extended between 2004 and 2006, and the airport has since seen further enhancements to support helicopter operations. On 14 May 2019 the airport handled its largest aircraft to date when a Qantas Airbus A330 operating flight QF44 from Denpasar to Sydney diverted to Broome following an electrical fault.
Broome International Airport remains the regional hub for the northwest of Western Australia, with scheduled domestic services connecting Perth, Darwin, Kununurra, Karratha, Port Hedland, Geraldton, Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek, along with seasonal links to Melbourne and Sydney. Seasonal international charter and low-cost services to Singapore have operated intermittently in recent years, most recently with Jetstar Asia running flights between 2024 and mid-2025 before that carrier ceased operations, and as of mid-2026 the airport has no scheduled international flights.