Polonia (Medan) airport
| Polonia International Airport (Medan) | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | WIMK |
| IATA code | MES |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 35 m (115 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 1 km south of Medan |
| Street | Streets |
| Local transport | buses |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1931 |
| operator | PT (Persero) Angkasa Pura II |
| surface | 144 ha |
| Terminals | 3 |
| Passengers | 4,597,268 (2006) |
| Air freight | 32,780 t (2006) |
| Flight movements |
50,512 (2006) |
| Capacity ( PAX per year) |
about 1 million |
| Start-and runway | |
| 05/23 | 2900 m × 45 m asphalt |
The Polonia Airport ( Indonesian Bandara Internasional Polonia , IATA : MES , ICAO : WIMK ) is an airport in Medan , the capital of the province of Sumatra Utara . It was opened during the Dutch colonial era and is now located right in the center of Medan. Until the opening of the new Kuala Namu Airport on July 25, 2013, it operated a dense domestic route network with connections to all major Indonesian cities as well as several international routes.
Polonia Airport is now owned by the Indonesian Air Force and has been renamed Soewondo Air Force Base. The Western Surveillance Wing will be stationed here with eight tactical CN-235 surveillance aircraft.
history
The airport name '' Polonia '' comes from the Indonesian word for Poland (Polandia). Polandia was a tobacco plantation that, like many other plantations , was named after the country of origin of the owner, in this case the Pole Ludwig Michalski . Since today's airport area is located on the area of this former plantation, the name Polonia was retained. In 1872, Michalski was one of the first whites in Medan to receive the plantation concession from the Dutch colonial administration . In 1879 the concession for the land was taken over by the Dutch Deli Matschappij (Deli MIJ) or NV Deli Maskapai. Years later, the Dutch aviation pioneer van der Hoop was the first to land his Fokker on a simple grassy area near Medan. This landing was only a stopover on his journey to Batavia, today's Jakarta . In 1924 he returned with two other Europeans to sign a treaty with the Sultan of Medan to build an airfield in Medan. In 1928, the small Polonia airfield with a short grass runway was opened and was operated by KNILM, a subsidiary of KLM . In 1936, the first 600 m long asphalt runway was put into operation in order to provide a more comfortable landing for the aircraft that often land .
Over time, the urban area of Medan became larger and larger and completely enclosed the airport area as early as the 1970s . Since it came because of the directly adjacent residential areas in plane crashes several times in casualties on the ground, began in the early 1990 's with the plans for a new airport. Another reason for building a new airport in connection with the location in the city center is the fact that the airport no longer offers any further expansion options.
On January 1, 1994, the state handling facilities, as at many Indonesian airports, were sold to the operating company PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero).
In 2006 a fire broke out in the baggage claim area of the international check-in building and partially destroyed the building, which is why the already overcrowded hall could now be used in an even smaller area.
Airport area and terminal building
The airport area is about 144 hectares and extends in a north-east-south-west direction. A taxiway only exists for a length of about 500 m, north of the runway . The terminal buildings are located on the northern edge of the airport site. In front of them is the apron, which offers aircraft parking positions for a maximum of ten aircraft the size of the Airbus A320 . Aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 747 can be parked in three parking positions .
Further south and on the opposite side of the runway there are aprons and facilities of the Indonesian military.
In places, the airport fence is only 80 m away from the runway.
The terminal buildings were only designed for around one million passengers a year, but had to handle more than four million passengers a year since the beginning of the upswing in Indonesian aviation. The passengers walked across the apron to the aircraft or from the aircraft into the building.
Incidents
Several aircraft accidents have occurred in the past, resulting in a total of more than 400 deaths both in the aircraft and on the ground. Here is a brief chronological summary:
- In 1979 a Fokker F28-1000 belonging to the state-owned Garuda Indonesia crashed. 61 people lost their lives.
- In 1987 a Douglas DC- 9-32 of the Garuda crashed after it had struck a high voltage pylon. 23 passengers died (see also Garuda Indonesia flight 035 ) .
- On June 18, 1988, shortly before a Vickers Viscount 828 of the Indonesian Merpati Nusantara Airlines (PK-MVG) landed at Medan-Polonia Airport, the hydraulic system failed. The hardly controllable aircraft rolled down to the right of the runway and was badly damaged. All 48 occupants survived the accident. After a transfer flight to Jakarta-Cengkareng , an economic total loss was determined.
- In 1997, an Airbus A300 B4-200 operated by the state-owned Garuda Indonesia collided with a mountain while approaching; 234 people were killed. The reason for the crash were incorrect instructions from air traffic control (see also Garuda Indonesia flight 152 ) .
- 2005 crashed Boeing 737 -200 of the Mandala Airlines shortly after takeoff in a residential area near the airport; this killed 149 people. According to initial rumors, it was caused by the aircraft being overloaded with 2 to 3 tons of durian fruits, which the former governor of Sumatra had sent to Jakarta as a gift and which were not listed on the aircraft's freight list. However, the accident investigation revealed that the pilots had failed to set the buoyancy aids for take-off. The machine's configuration warning system, which should have warned the pilots, was defective at this point. Checklists that would also have drawn attention to the error were, according to the voice recorder, not read by the crew during the entire flight and handling period (see also main article Mandala Airlines flight 91 ).
- (T) On June 30, 2015, an approximately 50-year-old Lockheed C-130B Hercules of the Indonesian Air Force (A-1310) crashed into a residential area in Medan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra after taking off 4.7 kilometers southwest of the Polonia take-off airport. The pilots had reported problems and announced a turnaround. All 113 occupants were killed, 12 crew members and 122 passengers. Numerous houses were also destroyed and another 17 people were killed there. With a total of 139 deaths, this was the third worst accident involving a Hercules, measured by the number of fatalities (see also plane crash in Medan 2015 ) .
Traffic figures
| Medan Airport - traffic figures | |||||||||
| year | Passenger volume | Freight volume in tons | Flight movements | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1.001.194 | 20,456 | 17,925 | ||||||
| 2000 | 1,158,382 | + 15.7% | 18,881 | −7.7% | 20,632 | + 15.1% | |||
| 2001 | 1,510,489 | + 30.4% | 21,809 | + 15.5% | 23,300 | + 12.9% | |||
| 2002 | 2,090,518 | + 38.4% | 23,969 | + 9.9% | 29,894 | + 28.4% | |||
| 2003 | 2,736,332 | + 30.9% | 24,067 | + 0.41% | 36,359 | + 21.6% | |||
| 2004 | 3,693,290 | + 35.0% | 29,320 | + 21.8% | 43,865 | + 20.6% | |||
| 2005 | 4,033,073 | + 9.2% | 32,125 | + 12.0% | 55,218 | + 27.1% | |||
| 2006 | 4,597,268 | + 14.7% | 32,780 | +1.4% | 50,512 | −3.2% | |||
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c ACI ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Jakarta Post, July 25, 2013
- ↑ Approach with a view of the surrounding residential areas
- ^ Accident report Viscount 800 PK-MVG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 9, 2019.
- ↑ Accident report C-130B TNI-AU A-1310 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 7, 2020.
- ↑ All figures are taken from ACI publications ( Memento des original from September 10, 2002) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
