Soewondo Air Force Base
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The Polonia Airport ( Bandara Internasional Polonia Indonesian, IATA: MES, ICAO: WIMK ) is an airport in Medan, the capital of the province of North Sumatra. He was still opened during the Dutch colonial era, and is now located directly in the city center of Medan. Until the opening of the new airport Kuala Namu on July 25, 2013, operated a dense Inlandsstreckenentz with connections to all major Indonesian cities and several international routes.
The Polonia Airport is now one of the Indonesian Air Force and was renamed the Air Force base Soewondo. Here the Western Surveillance Wing with eight tactical CN -235 surveillance aircraft is stationed in the future.
History
The airport name '' Polonia '' comes from the Indonesian word for Poland ( Polandia ). Polandia was a tobacco plantation that was like many other plantations also by country of residence of the owner, in this case of Poland Ludwig Michalski, named. Since the current airport site is in the territory of the former plantation, it retained the name Polonia. Michalski received in 1872 as one of the first white men in Medan, the plantation concession by the Dutch colonial administration. In 1879, the concession for the land of the Dutch Deli Matschappij ( Deli MIJ ) or NV Deli Maskapai was taken. Years later landed the Dutch aviation pioneer van der Hoop with its Fokker be the first on a simple grassy area near Medan. This landing was only a stopover on his way to Batavia, now Jakarta. In 1924, he came back with two other Europeans to complete with the Sultan of Medan a contract to build an airfield in Medan. 1928, the small airfield Polonia was opened with a short grass runway and was operated by the KNILM, a subsidiary of KLM. In order to provide the often landing aircraft a more comfortable landing, 1936, a first 600 m long asphalt runway was put into operation.
Over time, the city Medan grew and enveloped already in the 70s the airport area completely. Since it several times came to deaths due to the directly adjacent residential areas in plane crashes to the ground, they started back in the early 90s with the plans for a new airport. Another reason to build a new airport in connection with the location in the city center, is the fact that the airport does not offer any further expansion opportunities more.
On 1 January 1994, the state-owned terminal facilities were sold to as many Indonesian airports, the operator company PT Angkasa Pura II ( Persero ).
2006 a fire broke out in the baggage claim area of the international terminal building and destroyed part of the building, which is why the already overcrowded hall may be used only on an even smaller area.
Airport and terminal buildings
The airport area is about 144 hectares and extends northeast-southwest direction. A taxiway exists only over a length of about 500 m north of the airstrip. The terminal buildings are located on the northern edge of the airport. In front of you is the apron, which offers aircraft parking positions for a maximum of ten aircraft a size of the Airbus A320. On three aircraft parking positions can park up to the size of a Boeing 747.
Further south and on the opposite side of the runway are each platforms and facilities of the Indonesian military.
The airport fence is in places only 80 meters from the airstrip.
The terminal buildings are designed together for only about one million passengers per year, but the clearance of more than four million passengers per year have to deal with since the beginning of the upswing in the Indonesian aviation. Passengers walk across the apron to the plane or the plane into the building.
Plane crashes
In the past several airplane crashes, which resulted in both the aircraft and on the ground for more than 400 deaths occurred. Here is a brief chronological summary:
See also Main article Mandala Airlines Flight 91