 | |
| Founded | 14 July 1955 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1 January 1963 (absorbed into GIA) |
| Hubs | Biak-Mokmer Airport |
| Fleet size | DC-3 and Twin Pioneer |
| Destinations | 19 (in 1958) |
| Parent company | KLM |
| Headquarters | Biak, Netherlands New Guinea |
De Kroonduif, a former subsidiary of Dutch airline KLM, was the national carrier of Netherlands New Guinea between 1955 and 1963. The name 'kroonduif' is the Dutch term for the crowned pigeon endemic to New Guinea, which was assumed as the logo of the company.
On 14 July 1955, the company Nederlands Nieuw Guinea Luchtvaart Maatschappij (NNGLM) was established as a subsidiary of Dutch airline KLM, to provide air services within the Dutch territory of Netherlands New Guinea. This new airline, operating under the name of De Kroonduif, was based at Biak, and operated several routes throughout the territory with two de Havilland Canada Beavers.
Later the fleet was also supplemented with Douglas DC-3 Dakotas and Twin Pioneers.
As Dutch New Guinea was being incorporated into Indonesian territory on 1 January 1963, the operations of De Kroonduif were absorbed by Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia, which shortly afterwards assigned them to Merpati Nusantara Airlines , a company that since 1978 was fully owned by Garuda.
According to the De Kroonduif timetable dated 1 December 1958, at the time the following destinations were served:
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V., is the flag carrier of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM group and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Founded in 1919, KLM is the oldest operating airline in the world, and has 35,488 employees with a fleet of 110 as of 2021. KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to 145 destinations.
Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. It contained what are now Indonesia's six easternmost provinces, Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua, which were administered as a single province prior to 2003 under the name Irian Jaya, and now comprise the Papua region of the country.
Garuda Indonesia is the flag carrier of Indonesia, headquartered at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport. A successor of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, it is a member of SkyTeam and the second-largest airline of Indonesia after Lion Air, operating scheduled flights to a number of destinations across Asia, Europe, and Australia from its hubs, focus cities, as well as other cities for Hajj. It is the only Indonesian airline that flies to European airspace.
Soewondo Air Force Base is currently the military airbase of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Before 2013, this airport served commercial flights, and was known as Polonia International Airport which was the principal airport that served Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, about 2 km from the downtown, and used to serve flights to several Indonesian and Malaysian cities, along with a flight to Singapore and Thailand. Previous international flights had been opened to Hong Kong, Taipei, Amsterdam, Phuket, Chennai, Johor Bahru, Malacca and Ipoh.
The Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer was a British STOL transport aircraft built by Scottish Aviation Limited at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, during the 1950s. It was designed for both civil and military operators. It was conceived as a twin-engined version of the Pioneer light transport. Both aircraft required "an area only 30m (99ft) by 275m (902ft) in which to operate."
Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij was the airline of the former Dutch East Indies. Headquartered in Amsterdam, KNILM was not a subsidiary of the better-known KLM, despite the similar name. The airline had its headquarters in Amsterdam and an office in on the grounds of Tjililitan Airfield in Batavia.
PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, operating as Merpati Nusantara Airlines, was an airline in Indonesia based in Central Jakarta, Jakarta. It operated scheduled domestic services to more than 25 destinations in Indonesia, as well as scheduled international services to East Timor and Malaysia. The word merpati is Indonesian for "dove", and Nusantara is a Javanese word found in the Pararaton meaning "the outer islands", referring to the Indonesian archipelago. The airline was based at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. It also maintained both a maintenance and simulator facility at Juanda International Airport, Surabaya. The Merpati Training Centre at Surabaya housed Fokker F-27, AVIC MA60 and CN-235 full motion simulators.
Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 (GA152/GIA152) was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Garuda Indonesia from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, to Polonia International Airport, Medan, in Indonesia. On 26 September 1997, the aircraft flying the route crashed into mountainous woodlands near the village of Buah Nabar, Sibolangit, killing all 222 passengers and 12 crew members on board. It is the deadliest aviation disaster in Indonesia's history.
Frans Kaisiepo International Airport, is an airport in Biak, Papua, Indonesia. It is also known as Mokmer Airport. The airport is named after Frans Kaisiepo (1921–1979), the fourth Governor of Papua. The airport has seven aircraft parking slots, of which two are capable of handling wide-body aircraft, and a small terminal without jet bridges. The airport's only runway is 3,571m long, designated as 11/29.
Supadio International Airport, formerly known as Sei Durian Airport or Sungai Durian Airport, is an international airport located 17 km from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The airport is managed by PT. Angkasa Pura II, and takes up 528 ha. The airport serves as the main point of entry to West Kalimantan. The airport serves domestic routes only as of mid-2023. The airport was named the best airport in Asia-Pacific in 2020 by Airports Council International.
Frans Kaisiepo was a Papuan politician and Indonesian nationalist. He served as the fourth Governor of Papua Province. In 1993, Kaisiepo was posthumously declared a National Hero of Indonesia for his lifelong efforts to unite West Irian with Indonesia. As the representative of Papua province, he was involved in the Malino Conference, where the formation of the United States of Indonesia was discussed.
Reyn (Rhein) Altin Johannes Lumenta or R.A.J. Lumenta was the President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, the Indonesian National Airline, in the period of 1984–1988, replacing Wiweko Soepono. Born in Surabaya, East Java, from a Manado ethnic family of Sulawesi, Lumenta grew up in Indonesia before continuing his education in the Netherlands. He graduated in “Vliegtuigbouw” from Hogere Technische School “Technicum” in Rotterdam in 1956. Having strong relation with Wagey and Saroinsong family clans.
Kemayoran Airport also spelled Kemajoran Airport, was the principal airport for Jakarta, Indonesia, from 8 July 1940 until 31 March 1985, when it was replaced by Soekarno–Hatta International Airport.
GMF AeroAsia is an Indonesian company that specialises in aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul. The company serves the Asia-Pacific region and employs more than 4,000 people, and is based in Tangerang, Indonesia, it has many offices around the world. It services airplanes of many types and is one of the largest and leading aircraft maintenance facilities in Asia.
KLM Flight 844 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Biak-Mokmer Airport, Dutch New Guinea to Manila International Airport, Manila, Philippines on 16 July 1957, which crashed into Cenderawasih Bay 1.2 kilometres from its departure airport. As a result, 58 out of 68 onboard perished. The flight was the first leg of a service with the ultimate destination of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij Interinsulair Bedrijf Batavia was an airline based in the Dutch East Indies and the predecessor to Garuda Indonesia.
The West New Guinea dispute (1950–1962), also known as the West Irian dispute, was a diplomatic and political conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia over the territory of Dutch New Guinea. While the Netherlands had ceded sovereignty over most of the Dutch East Indies to Indonesia on 27 December 1949 following an independence struggle, it retained control over its colony on the western half of New Guinea. The Indonesian government claimed this territory as well, on the basis that it had belonged to the Dutch East Indies and that the new Republic of Indonesia was the legitimate successor to the former Dutch colony.
Aviation in Indonesia serves as a critical means of connecting the thousands of islands throughout the archipelago. Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, extending 5,120 kilometres (3,181 mi) from east to west and 1,760 kilometres (1,094 mi) from north to south, comprising 13,466 islands, with 922 of those permanently inhabited. With an estimated population of over 255 million people — making it the world's fourth-most-populous country — and also due to the growth of the middle-class, the boom of low-cost carriers in the recent decade, and overall economic growth, many domestic travellers shifted from land and sea transport to faster and more comfortable air travel. Indonesia is widely regarded as an emerging market for air travel in the region. Between 2009 and 2014, the number of Indonesian air passengers increased from 27,421,235 to 94,504,086, an increase of over threefold.
Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 724 (MZ724/MNA724) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines from Pattimura Airport in Maluku's provincial capital Ambon to Jefman Airport in Sorong, Irian Jaya ; both in Indonesia. On 1 July 1993, the aircraft operating the flight, a Fokker F28 Fellowship 3000 registered as PK-GFU, crashed into the sea after it struck a small hill near Jefman Airport. Forty-one people were killed in the crash.
