Tawau Airport

Tawau Airport
Lapangan Terbang Tawau
IATA: TWU – ICAO: WBKW
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Government of Malaysia
Operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
Serves Tawau Division
Location Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia
Time zone MST (UTC+08:00)
Elevation AMSL 57 ft / 17 m
Coordinates 04°18′48″N 118°07′19″E / 4.31333°N 118.12194°E / 4.31333; 118.12194Coordinates: 04°18′48″N 118°07′19″E / 4.31333°N 118.12194°E / 4.31333; 118.12194
Map
WBKW

Location in East Malaysia

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,685 8,809 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passenger 1,203,792 (Decrease 1.2%)
Airfreight (tonnes) 3,910 (Increase 19.8%)
Aircraft movements 14,007 (Decrease 2.7%)
Sources: official web site[1][2]

Tawau Airport (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Tawau) (IATA: TWU, ICAO: WBKW) is an airport located 15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi) north east[2] of Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second airport in Sabah with immigration counters for international flights. The new runway could cater for aircraft as big as Airbus series.

Like other airports in the country, Tawau Airport is under the management of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.

Tawau airport is the nearest airport to the diving islands of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai.

History

During the early days, Tawau airport was located on Jalan Utara, literally known as Northern road about 2 mi (3.2 km) away from Tawau. The airport was officially opened in 1968 by the former Transport Minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Haji Sardon. It was only used to cater to small aircraft, such as Fokker 50.

However, on 15 September 1995, a Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133, a Fokker 50 from Kota Kinabalu touched down 500 m (1,600 ft) before the end of the 2,200 m (7,218 ft) long runway. While attempting to carry out a go-around, the aircraft crashed into a Malay village, Kampung Seri Menanti, causing 34 fatalities including two crew.[3] Another MAS Boeing 737-400 plane was skidded off the runway in October 2001 without any causing any injuries to the passengers.

New airport

At present, this airport is being expanded to accommodate medium wide-body aircraft with 2 aero bridges. In 2008, the airport handled 700,859 passengers, 19,328 aircraft movements and over 8,900 metric tonnes of cargo. The airport is able to handle over 1.8 million passengers per year.

According to a survey, the old airport has one of the shortest runways in the country. Soon, a new international airport was in the government blue plan to shift Tawau airport to a new location along Tawau – Semporna highway, 30 km (19 mi) from Tawau.

The airport was subsequently opened to public in December 2001. In year 2003, Tawau Airport was officially launched by the former Transport Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik. Tawau Airport became the second largest airport in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
AirAsia Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International
Malaysia Airlines Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International
Malaysia Airlines
operated by MASwings 		Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tarakan

Traffic and statistics

Traffic

Annual passenger numbers and aircraft statistics
Year
Passengers

handled
Passenger

% Change
Cargo

(tonnes)
Cargo

% Change
Aircraft

Movements
Aircraft

%
Change
2003551,168Steady2,701Steady8,368Steady
2004620,847Increase 12.62,968Increase 9.98,900Decrease 6.4
2005680,901Increase 9.73,885Increase 30.99,814Increase 10.3
2006660,331Decrease 3.03,030Decrease 22.09,215Decrease 6.1
2007736,646Increase 11.62,134Decrease 29.67,992Decrease 13.3
2008768,967Increase 4.41,262Decrease 40.98,546Increase 6.9
2009866,601Increase 12.71,951Increase 54.69,876Increase 15.6
2010897,848Increase 3.63,045Increase 56.110,845Increase 9.8
2011922,452Increase 2.73,198Increase 5.010,186Decrease 6.1
2012982,153Increase 6.52,489Decrease 22.211,087Increase 8.8
20131,202,344Increase 22.42,844Increase 14.313,896Increase 26.5
20141,218,616Increase 1.43,265Increase 14.814,396Increase 3.6
20151,203,792Decrease 1.23,910Increase 19.814,007Decrease 2.7
Source: Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad[4]

Statistics

RankDestinationFrequency
(Weekly)
1 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 56
2 Kuala Lumpur 42
3 Sandakan, Sabah 14
4 Tarakan, Indonesia 7
5 Johor Bahru, Johor 4

Overview

An aerobridge in Tawau Airport

Tawau Airport is located at Balung, 3 km (1.9 mi) further in from the Pan Borneo Highway. Tawau Airport was to be built as the most southeast international airport in Sabah.

Tawau airport has a 2,685 m × 47 m (8,809 ft × 154 ft) long fully service runway, namely runway 06/24. Runway 24 is equipped with Instrument Landing System (ILS) while runway 06 doesn't.

The terminal is a one and a half stories building, which consists of two aerobridges, and its large apron can accommodate eight aircraft at one time.

Open air car park is provided with 500 parking lots.

An airport police station is located just at the opposite of the main terminal building.

Taxi coupon or town shuttle bus ticket to Tawau or Semporna can be bought at the respective counters inside the terminal.

In 2008, 768,967 passengers went through the airport with 10,546 aircraft movements.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Tawau Airport, Sabah at Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
  2. 1 2 WBK - TAWAU at Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia
  3. ↑ Aircraft accident Fokker 50 9M-MGH Tawau Airport (TWU) on 15 Sep 1995
  4. ↑ "MAHB Annual Report 2015" (PDF). Malaysia Airports. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tawau Airport.
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.