Soa Airport
Airport in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soa Airport (IATA: BJW, ICAO: WATB), also known as Turelelo-Soa Airport, is a domestic airport serving Bajawa, the administrative seat of Ngada Regency, located in the central part of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The airport is named after the district in which it is situated. Located approximately 12 km (7.5 miles) from Bajawa town center, the airport serves as one of the main gateways to Bajawa and Ngada Regency. It currently handles limited regional flights within East Nusa Tenggara, with scheduled services to Labuan Bajo and Kupang operated by Wings Air. In the past, the airport also served routes to Bima and Ende, operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines; however, these services have since been discontinued.
Soa Airport Bandar Udara Soa | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Indonesia | ||||||||||
| Operator | Directorate General of Civil Aviation | ||||||||||
| Serves | Bajawa | ||||||||||
| Location | Soa, Ngada Regency, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia | ||||||||||
| Time zone | WITA (UTC+08:00) | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 4,326 ft / 1,319 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 8.708612°S 121.057901°E | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Source: DGCA[1][2] | |||||||||||
History
The first airport in Bajawa was Padamaleda Airport, constructed in the 1970s in Turekisa.[3] It featured a runway measuring 800 metres in length and 24 metres in width, with a grass surface. The airport was served by Twin Otter aircraft operating on the Kupang–Bajawa–Kupang route.[4] The land used for Padamaleda Airport remained under the ownership of the Ngada Regency Government under a right of use arrangement. However, due to the airport’s challenging topographical conditions—frequent fog and heavy rainfall—aircraft often experienced difficulties landing, including a failed landing incident in 1991.[4] As a result, a new airport was constructed in Piga Satu Village, Soa District, on a 47.42-hectare site owned by the Ministry of Transportation. This new facility was later named Soa Airport. At the time of its construction, Soa Airport had a runway measuring 800 metres in length and 24 metres in width, with an asphalt (hotmix) surface. Similar to its predecessor, the airport was initially served by Twin Otter aircraft operating on the Kupang–Bajawa–Kupang route.[4]
In 1997, Merpati Nusantara Airlines operated scheduled flights to Ende and Bima in Sumbawa, with onward connections available.[5]
On 21 December 2013, the district head of Ngada, East Nusa Tenggara, decided to bar state-controlled airline Merpati Nusantara Airlines from landing at the airport after he was refused a ticket on an already fully booked Merpati flight.[6] Two Merpati planes, one of them carrying 54 passengers, were forced to return to El Tari Airport in Kupang after the airport was closed from 6:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. Several other flights were also reportedly redirected.[7]
Facilities and development
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Wings Air | Kupang,[8] Labuan Bajo[9] |
