Bintulu Airport Lapangan Terbang Bintulu |
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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°ECoordinates: 03°07′27″N 113°01′11″E / 3.12417°N 113.01972°E | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Location in East Malaysia | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Statistics (2015) | |||||||||||
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Source: official web site
AIP Malaysia |
Passenger | 800,008 ( 3.9%) |
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Airfreight (tonnes) | 2,383 ( 2.8%) |
Aircraft movements | 12,638 ( 2.5%) |
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, 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.
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.