With the landing on October 1, 2011 of a Garuda Boeing 737-800 ER on the 2750-meter runway the new Lombok International Airport (Bandara Internasional Lombok, BIL), which will replace the old Mataram Selaparang Airport, was officially opened.
The old Selaparang Airport was officially closed on September 30, 2011 at 18:00. With the replacement of the Selaparang airport the Lombok International Airport is expected to improve the local economy and welfare of Nusa Tenggara Barat. The Lombok International Airport is with an area of 551 hectares the second largest airport after Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The development of the airport took over a decade and was delayed numerous times and came with a cost of almost Rp 1 trillion ($100 million).
Most flights from Lombok International Airport are to Jakarta and to Denpasar Bali but there are many more flights to other destinations as well, most of them by Wings Air. These are the most popular destinations from Lombok International Airport:
Jakarta (JKTA)Denpasar Bali (DPS)Surabaya (SUB)Makassar (UPG)
Kuala Lumpur (XKLA)Yogyakarta (JOGA)Bima (BMU)
Singapore (SIN)Tambolaka (TMC)Labuanbajo (LBJ)Waingapu (WGP)Sumbawa (SWQ)Balikpapan (BPN)Manado (MDC)
