Kota Kinabalu International Airport

Kota Kinabalu International Airport is an international airport in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia. It is located approximately 8km southwest of the city centre. In 2016, 7.2 million passengers passed through the airport, making it the second busiest airport in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The airport serves the city of Kota Kinabalu as well as the entire west coast of Sabah.HistoryThe airport began as a military airfield built by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. It was then known as Jesselton Airfield (Kota Kinabalu was known as Jesselton at the time). Towards the end of the war, it suffered severe bombings by Allied Forces.After the war, the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) of North Borneo (now Sabah) took over the operation and maintenance of the airport. In 1957, the original grass strip runway was resurfaced with bitumen material and a new terminal was built. By 1959, the runway had been extended to 1,593 metres to enable the operation of Malayan Airways' turboprop Viscount aircraft. In 1963, the runway was further reinforced and lengthened to 1,921 meters to cater for Comet 4 jet operations. Commercial flights and passenger arrivals gradually increased and a larger terminal building was needed. By 1967, Cathay Pacific Airways had begun operating a twice-weekly Convair 880 jet service between the airport and Hong Kong with an intermediate stop in Manila.