Soewondo Air Force Base

Soewondo Air Force Base

The name Polonia is taken from the plantation area owned by a Pole, Baron Michalski in which it is situated. Polonia originates from the Latin name of the country of Poland. In 1872, the Baron obtained a concession from the Dutch East Indies administration for a tobacco plantation in Medan. He named the plantation after the country of his birth, which at that time wasn't an independent state.
In 1879, the concession was handed over to Deli Maatschappij or NV Deli Maskapai. In 1924, Dutch KLM test pilot N. J. Thomassen x Thuessink van der Hoop planned to fly on a Fokker F.VII in a pioneering flight from the Netherlands. Therefore, Deli MIJ, who controlled that piece of land, handed it over for the land to become the 1st airstrip in Medan.
By the time the news had arrived, it was too late to prepare a proper landing strip at Polonia. As a result, van der Hoop, together with Lieutenant H van Weerden Poelman of the Army Aviation Department and KLM flight engineer P. A. van den Broeke, landed on a horse-racing track called Deli Renvereeniging and were greeted by the Sultan of Deli, Sulaiman Syaiful Alamsyah.
After this 1st landing, the Assistant Resident of Eastern Sumatra C.S. Van Kempen urged the Netherlands East Indies administration in Batavia to allocate the necessary funding to finish the airport at Polonia. In 1928, the airport was officially opened, which was marked with the landing of six aircraft owned by KNILM on a temporary hardened dirt runway. From 1930, KLM and KNILM started expanding its network to Medan. It was only in 1936 that the airport's 600-metre permanent runway was finished.
In 1975, according to a joint decree issued by the Department of Defence and Security, Department of Transportation, and Department of Finance, the airport was jointly managed between the Indonesian Air Force and the Civil Aviation. From 1985, according to the Government Regulation No. 30-year 1975, the management became the responsibility of Perum Angkasa Pura which subsequently became PT. Angkasa Pura II after 1 January 1994.

The airport is now and replaced by Kuala Namu

closed to commercial aviation International Airport.

After the ferry flights were completed, all of the airport activity officially shifted to Kuala Namu International Airport. The airport is now used as an air force base, designated as Soewondo Air Force Base. The name Soewondo is taken from an aviator whose aircraft was shot down by the Dutch in Pematang Siantar during the Indonesian War of Independence.
The airport located on 144 hectares land area. There is a single asphalt runway which is 3,000 m long and 45 m wide, but has only 2,900 m of usable length. There is no run-off space beyond the runway thresholds, and the airfield is surrounded by residential areas. It is often said that its location in a residential district, the wealthy Polonia area, is due to a superstition that the loud noises from aircraft drive away malevolent spirits.
The airport consisted of an international and domestic terminal. A fire in the international arrivals area in 2006 caused damage to the airport, reducing the baggage reclaim area to a small section inside the terminal. On 2 December 2007, the domestic terminal was damaged by another fire. There were no injuries, and the separate international terminal wasn't affected.
The airport suffered from overcrowding, serving 7,5 million passengers annually in facilities designed to handle only 900,000 passengers. The other problems were no orderly parking space for taxi, too many porters and garbage control. These problems are hoped to be solved by the replacing airport, Kuala Namu. Its cnstruction began on 29 June 2006, and it is predicted to be Indonesia's 2nd-largest airport after Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. It began to operate on 25 July 2013.
Facing dilemma whether or not upgrading Polonia International Airport amid delays regarding the new Kuala Namu International Airport will be finished, PT Angkasa Pura II pledged to fix access roads between Mustang Street and Imam Bonjol Street.
Several airlines were operating from Polonia International airport when it closed. They all moved to the new Kuala Namu International Airport when that airport commenced operations.

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