Sultan Ismail Petra Airport
Sultan Ismail Petra Airport
Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (IATA: KBR, ICAO: WMKC) is an airport serving Kota Bharu, a city in the state of Kelantan in Malaysia. The airport is named after Ismail Petra of Kelantan, the 28th Sultan of Kelantan, who ruled from 1979 to 2010. It is currently undergoing expansion through multiple phases to be an international airport, with phase 1 being completed and opened on 1 May 2024. It is the second-oldest airport in Peninsular Malaysia and the busiest airport on the East Coast.
Location
6.167°N, 102.293°E · 5 m s. n. m. (16 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 2
Tower
Ground
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
History
The airport is a former RAF station base, RAF Kota Bharu and a former British military airfield. It was the landing site of the Japanese invasion of Malaya during World War II. The scene of the first Japanese landing in Malaya was on 8 December 1941.
After the war, the RAF military airfield was turned into a civilian airport. The passenger terminal was built and known as Pengkalan Chepa Airport. The inaugural commercial flight to Kelantan occurred on April 6, 1938, following a route survey conducted by Wearne's Air Service. On April 3, 1940, the airline officially launched regular scheduled flights, establishing a connection between Kota Bharu and Singapore, with stops including to Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
Airlines operating here · 5
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: Snowidun · CC BY-SA 3.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.
This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR
MLA
“Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_kbr,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KBR |title=Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (KBR) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}