Babo Airport Explained

Babo Airport
Nativename:Bandar Udara Babo
Iata:BXB
Icao:WASO
Type:Public
Owner:Government of Indonesia
Operator:Ministry of Transportation
City-Served:Teluk Bintuni
Location:Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua, Indonesia
Timezone:WITA
Elevation-F:10
Coordinates:-2.55°N 133.4167°W
Pushpin Map:Indonesia West Papua#Indonesia Western New Guinea#Indonesia
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in West Papua##Location in Western New Guinea##Location in Indonesia
Pushpin Label:BXB
R1-Number:02/20
R1-Length-F:3937
R1-Length-M:1300
R1-Surface:Asphalt
Footnotes:[1] [2]

Babo Airport is located in Babo, West Papua, Indonesia. The airport serves as the point of entry to the nearby Tangguh LNG Plant. Its previous runway length of 950 meters was extended to 1,300 meters in early August 2014. The airport can only accommodate aircraft such as the ATR-72 and Twin Otter.

The Tangguh LNG plant in Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua, began production in 2009. Since a few years earlier, various infrastructure began to be built and improved. One of them is Babo Airport, which is in Babo district. To cater to workers of the Tangguh LNG plant, the airport was reactivated and developed after years of lying dormant. The development not only consist of paving the airport runway, but also defusing no fewer than 360 active bombs scattered in the airport area left by the Dutch in the midst of the Pacific War during World War II. The defusing of the bombs, which was assisted by the Indonesian Army Combat Engineers, took place in 2002. Once completed, the airport runway which originally had a gravel surface was paved by BP Berau, a subsidiary of BP. Having a runway along 1,300 meters, Babo Airport is now under the management of the Ministry of Transportation.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: BXB - Babo Airport Current Weather and Airport Delay Conditions.
  2. Web site: Babo - Indonesia.
  3. http://www.indoplaces.com/mod.php?mod=indonesia&op=view_region&regid=4947 Bandara Babo, Kabupaten Teluk Bintuni