Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport

Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport

Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport, formerly named as Sepinggan Airport, is an international airport serving the city of Balikpapan and adjacent areas of East Kalimantan, located in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The airport is named after Aji Muhammad Sulaiman (1838–1899), a former ruler of the Kutai Kertanegara Sultanate. Covering an area of 300 hectares, it serves as the primary gateway to Balikpapan and East Kalimantan, and is the largest airport in the region. In the future, the airport will serve as one of the main gateways to Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara, and will be connected to it via a toll road. The airport functions as a key regional hub, offering regular domestic flights to major Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, and Denpasar, along with international routes to Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. In 2018, Airports Council International named it the second-best airport in the world for service quality among those handling 5 to 15 million passengers annually. Due to its single runway extending into a densely built-up area, landings at the airport are often described as both visually dramatic and technically challenging for pilots.