Polonia International Airport Bandar Udara Internasional Polonia
IATA: MES – ICAO: WIMM
Summary
Airport type		Public / Military
Operator		PT Angkasa Pura II
Location		Medan, Indonesia
Elevation AMSL		114 ft / 35 m
Coordinates		03°33′29″N 098°40′18″E / 3.55806°N 98.67167°E / 3.55806; 98.67167
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
05/23	3,000	9,850	Asphalt
Source: DAFIF

Polonia International Airport (Indonesian: Bandar Udara Internasional Polonia) (IATA: MES, ICAO: WIMM) (Popularly Polonia Airport, as in Indonesia, Bandara Polonia) is located in the city of Medan, Indonesia, about 5 km from the Central Business District. It is the first international airport in Medan. It serves flights to several Indonesian and Malaysian cities, along with a flight to Singapore. Flights to Indian cities are also planned. In terms of passenger numbers, Polonia is the fourth largest airport in Indonesia after Soekarno-Hatta, Juanda, and Ngurah Rai.

History

The name of this airport is taken from the name of the area in which it is situated, which originates from the Latin name of the country of Poland. Before it became an airport, the area was a plantation owned by a Pole, Baron Michalski. In 1872, he obtained a concession from the Dutch East Indies administration for a tobacco plantation in an area in Medan. He named the plantation after the country of his birth, which was in that time not an independent state.

In 1879 the concession was handed over to Deli Maatschappij (Deli MIJ) or NV Deli Maskapai. During that year also it was known that the Dutch KLM test pilot N. J. Thomassen à Thuessink van der Hoop was planning to fly on a Fokker F.VII in pioneering flight from the Netherlands. Therefore, Deli MIJ who controlled that piece of land hand it over for the land to become the first airstrip in Medan

First landing on a horse-racing track in Medan

Initially, the news have cooled down, until 1924, by the time in which it was too late to prepare a proper landing strip. As a result, van der Hoop, together with Lieutenant H van Weerden Poelman of the Army Aviation Department , and KLM flight engineer P. A. van den Broeke landed on a horse-racing track called Deli Renvereeniging and were greeted by the Sultan of Deli, Sulaiman Syaiful Alamsyah.

After this first landing, the Assistant Resident of Eastern Sumatra C.S. Van Kempen urged the Netherlands East Indies administration in Batavia to allocate the necessary funding to finish the airport at Polonia. In 1928 the airport was officially opened which was marked with the landing of six aircraft owned by KNILM, a subsidiary of KLM on a temporary hardened dirt runway. From 1930, KLM and KNILM started expanding its network to Medan. It was only in 1936 that the airport's 600 metre permanent runway was finished.

In 1975, according to a joint decree issued by the Department of Defence and Security, Department of Transportation, and Department of Finance, the airport was jointly managed between the Indonesian Air Force and the Civil Aviation. From 1985, according to the Government Regulation No. 30 year 1975, the management became the responsibility of Perum Angkasa Pura which subsequently became PT. Angkasa Pura II (Persero) since 1 January 1994.

Runway and Facilities

Polonia International Airport Map

There is a single asphalt runway (05/23) which is 2900 m long and 45 m wide, but has only 2,625 m of usable length. There is no run-off space beyond the runway thresholds, and the airfield is surrounded by residential areas. It is often said that its location in a residential district, the wealthy Polonia area, is due to a superstition that the loud noises from aircraft drive away malevolent spirits.

Until recently, the airport consisted of an international and domestic terminal. A fire in the international arrivals area in 2006 caused damage to the airport, reducing the baggage reclaim area to a small section inside the terminal. On 2 December 2007, the domestic terminal was damaged by another fire. There were no injuries, and the separate international terminal was not affected.

The airport suffers from overcrowding, serving 4.5 million passengers annually in facilities designed to handle only 900,000 passengers. These problems should be resolved by the construction of Kuala Namu International Airport, which will replace Polonia Airport and become Indonesia's second-largest airport when opened in mid-2011. Construction began 29 June 2006.

Airlines and destinations

Passengers on tarmac at Polonia Airport

Accidents and incidents

• On 11 July 1979, a Fokker F28 of Garuda Indonesia Airways crashed into Mount Sibayak while on approach to Medan-Polonia airport. All 61 passengers and crew on board were killed.
• On 4 April 1987, Garuda Indonesia Flight 035, crashed into power lines and a television aerial in bad weather as it attempted landing at Medan-Polonia. 22 of the 45 passengers and crew on board were killed.
• On 18 June 1988, Vickers Viscount PK-MVG of Merpati Nusantara Airlines was damaged beyond economic repair when it suffered a hydraulic system failure and departed the runway.
• On 26 September 1997, Garuda Indonesia Flight 152, a Airbus A300, crashed into woodlands 18 miles short of Medan-Polonia airport. All 235 passengers and crew on board were killed. Flight 135 is the worst aviation disaster in Indonesia history.
• On 5 September 2005, Mandala Airlines Flight 091, crashed shortly after takeoff from Polonia. Of the 120 passengers and crew on board, 104 were killed. Another 39 people on the ground died as a result of the crash.

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2010.
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