Rokot Airport
Rokot Airport Bandar Udara Rokot | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Indonesia | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Directorate General of Civil Aviation | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Mentawai Islands | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Sipora Selatan, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra | ||||||||||||||
| Time zone | WIB (UTC+07:00) | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 30 ft / 9 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 2°06′00″S 99°42′16″E / 2.1001°S 99.7044°E | ||||||||||||||
| Maps | |||||||||||||||
Sumatra region in Indonesia | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Source: Directorate General of Civil Aviation | |||||||||||||||
Rokot Airport (IATA: RKI, ICAO: WIBR), also known as Mentawai Airport, is an airport located in Sipora, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, serving Tuapeijat, the largest town in the Mentawai Islands. The airport serves as the primary gateway to the Mentawai Islands. It currently operates only regional flights to and from Padang, the provincial capital of West Sumatra.
The airport was built and completed in 1980. It originally had a 900 × 23 meter runway. However, due to erosion near the shoreline, the airport was at risk of sinking. The runway, which was originally around 900 meters long, has eroded to approximately 800 meters. This is due to the close proximity between the runway and the shoreline. In addition to coastal erosion, the airport is also at risk of submersion due to local communities extracting coral stones for house construction.
To accommodate the growing passenger traffic to the Mentawai Islands, a new terminal and runway were built and completed on October 25, 2023, at a cost of approximately 547 million Rupiah. They were inaugurated by President Joko Widodo, replacing the old terminal and runway, which were at risk due to erosion and could only accommodate small aircraft as they could not be extended further.