Sentani Airport is an airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 serving Jayapura

Jayapura

Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....

, the capital

Capital City

Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....

 of Papua province, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, on the island of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. The name of this airport is taken from a lake nearby.

History

Sentani Airport was a part of the large American facilities at Hollandia, which was liberated from the Japanese by an American amphibious task force Code named Operation Reckless on 22 April 1944.

The area was occupied by the Japanese in April 1942, and by October 10, 1943, the Japanese had built a large complex with two runways: a western runway of 4,500 ft and a second southern runway was 6,200 ft x 340 ft. There were 24 larger bomber revetments to the west of the strip, and an additional 27 to the east of the field, connected by taxiways to the two runways. Anti-aircraft defenses included 4 light guns that were later upgraded. The airfields were badly cratered by American bomber raids.

Once controlled by the Americans the airfields were rebuilt and it became a command and control base with large numbers of operational units flying combat missions with fighters and heavy bombers operating out of the area. The American facilities consisted of three large military airfields: Hollandia, Sentani and Cyclops Aerodromes.

At the end of the war the Hollandia airfield was abandoned but remains in good condition to this day. Part of the complex was the Cyclops airfield, which was a single runway facility, built by the Japanese. It is notable because it functioned as MacArthur's HQ at Hollanida. Today Cyclops Airfield is overgrown, being abandoned since the war. It has been partially developed into the town of Jayapura.

Sentani Airfield is the only part of the complex still in use as an airfield today. It is used as the principal entry point into the Indonesian half of the island.

Major USAAF units stationed at Hollandia

• 308th Bombardment Wing
  308th Bombardment Wing (World War II)
  The 308th Bombardment Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Far East Air Forces, based at Nagoya, Japan. It was inactivated on 30 June 1948....
  
  (10 August-22 October 1944)
• 310th Bombardment Wing
  310th Air Division
  The 310th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Continental Air Command, assigned to Twelfth Air Force, being stationed at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma...
  
  (6 May-18 September 1944)
• 85th Fighter Wing (24 July-24 October 1944)
• 3d Bombardment Group
  3d Wing
  The 3d Wing is a unit of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force. It is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska....
  
  (12 May-16 November 1944)
• 312th Bombardment Group
  312th Aeronautical Systems Wing
  The 312th Aeronautical Systems Group is a component of the United States Air Force 312th Aeronautical Systems Wing. It is stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and is assigned to Air Force Material Command ....
  
  (June-19 November 1944)
• 49th Fighter Group
  49th Fighter Wing
  The 49th Wing is an air combat unit of the United States Air Force and the host unit at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. The 49 WG is part of the Air Combat Command Twelfth Air Force....
  
    (17 May-5 June 1944)
• 475th Fighter Group
  475th Air Base Wing
  The 475th Air Base Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last duty station was at Yokota Air Base, Japan, where it was inactivated on 1 April 1992....
  
    (15 May-14 July 1944)
• 317th Troop Carrier Group
  317th Airlift Group
  The 317th Airlift Group is a United States Air Force unit, stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. Assigned to Air Mobility Command Eighteenth Air Force, the 317 AG operates as a tenant unit to the 7th Bomb Wing, Air Combat Command ....
  
  (June-17 November 1944)
• 418th Night Fighter Squadron
  418th Night Fighter Squadron
  The 418th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing, being inactivated at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona on 1 October 1976.-World War II:...
  
  (12 May-28 September 1944)

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 289 feet (88 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 designated 12/30 with an asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 surface measuring 2183 by 45 m (7,162.1 by 147.6 ).

Airlines and destinations

Hygiene culture

In Sentani Airport, you can find the typical prohibition sign besides no smoking sign, viz. "Do not eating areca nut" or the no eat areca nut sign. This is because frequent Papuans chewing the areca nut and carelessly discard the areca nut juice immediately. So the juice spurts everywhere. It is called "spitting redly" http://www.detiknews.com/read/2010/09/30/093859/1451962/10/ssttt-dilarang-makan-pinang-di-bandara-jayapura

See also

• USAAF in the Southwest Pacific
  United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific Theatre
  During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces engaged in combat against the air, ground and naval forces of the Empire of Japan in the South West Pacific Theatre....