Bintulu Airport

Bintulu Airport
Lapangan Terbang Bintulu
IATA: BTUICAO: WBGB
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Government of Malaysia
Operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
Serves Bintulu Division, Sarawak, East Malaysia
Location Bintulu, Sarawak, East Malaysia
Time zone MST (UTC+08:00)
Elevation AMSL 74 ft / 23 m
Coordinates 03°07′27″N 113°01′11″E / 3.12417°N 113.01972°E / 3.12417; 113.01972Coordinates: 03°07′27″N 113°01′11″E / 3.12417°N 113.01972°E / 3.12417; 113.01972
Map
WBGB

Location in East Malaysia

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
17/35 2,745 9,006 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passenger 800,008 (Decrease 3.9%)
Airfreight (tonnes) 2,383 (Increase 2.8%)
Aircraft movements 12,638 (Decrease 2.5%)
Source: official web site[1]
AIP Malaysia[2]

Bintulu Airport (IATA: BTU, ICAO: WBGB) is an airport serving Bintulu, a town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. The airport is located 5 km (3.1 mi), 23 km (14 mi) by road,[2] southwest of the city, and although small, it is able to handle planes as large as a Boeing 747. In 2008, the airport handled 417,918 passengers and 16,787 aircraft movements.[1]

History

Old Bintulu Airport building (right) in 1955.

History of Bintulu airport began in early 1937 when the British colony built an airfield situated between a river at one end and the sea coast at the other end.

Bintulu old airport was open for operation on 1 September 1955, with a grass-surface runway catering for de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide and Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer aircraft operated by Borneo Airways.

In 1963, bigger types of aircraft such as DC-3 services were introduced. In 1966, the runway was resurfaced with bitumen and the terminal building was also extended to cater for increasing number of passenger.

On 1 July 1968, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines introduced scheduled Fokker 27 services into Bintulu. The terminal building and the parking apron was extended in 1981 to accommodate Fokker 50 aircraft.

In September 2005, first low-cost airline in Malaysia, AirAsia started operating in Bintulu airport. FlyAsianXpress (FAX), subsidiary company for AirAsia has taken over major domestic routes linking Bintulu, started its operation on 1 August 2006, until 30 September 2007. On 1 October 2007, Malaysia Airlines subsidiary, MASwings took over the link connecting Bintulu.

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
AirAsia Kuala Lumpur–International, Kuching
Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur–International
Malaysia Airlines
operated by MASwings
Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Miri, Mukah, Sibu

Traffic and Statistics

Traffic

Annual passenger numbers and aircraft statistics
Year
Passengers
handled
Passenger
% Change
Cargo
(tonnes)
Cargo
% Change
Aircraft
Movements
Aircraft
% Change
2003427,894Steady940Steady13,627Steady
2004464,576Increase 8.61,375Increase 46.313,546Decrease 0.6
2005487,077Increase 4.82,110Increase 53.413,619Increase 0.5
2006449,673Decrease 7.72,205Increase 4.511,804Decrease 13.3
2007381,158Decrease 15.22,252Increase 2.17,093Decrease 39.9
2008417,918Increase 9.61,978Decrease 12.216,787Increase 136.7
2009487,060Increase 16.51,903Decrease 3.851,009Increase 203.9
2010557,459Increase 14.41,703Decrease 10.524,246Decrease 52.5
2011590,253Increase 5.92,071Increase 21.617,122Decrease 29.4
2012661,553Increase 12.12,574Increase 24.312,294Decrease 28.2
2013779,774Increase 17.92,553Decrease 0.813,661Increase 11.1
2014832,440Increase 6.82,318Decrease 9.212,968Decrease 5.1
2015800,008Decrease 3.92,383Increase 2.812,638Decrease 2.5
Source: Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad[3]

Statistics

RankDestinationFrequency
(Weekly)
1 Sarawak, Kuching 31
2 Kuala Lumpur 28
3 Sabah, Kota Kinabalu 14
4 Sarawak, Miri 14
5 Sarawak, Sibu 11
6 Sarawak, Mukah 3

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bintulu Airport.

References

  1. 1 2 Bintulu Airport, Sarawak at Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
  2. 1 2 WBGB - BINTULU at Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia
  3. "MAHB Annual Report 2015" (PDF). Malaysia Airports. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.