Construction and early history

Tjilik Riwut Airport was originally known as Panarung Airfield, established on 1 May 1958, and officially inaugurated by Tjilik Riwut, who was then the Resident of Central Kalimantan. At the time, it was classified as a rural airfield and could only serve limited rural flights using small aircraft such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. Merpati Nusantara Airlines soon began operating scheduled services to Palangkaraya using Twin Otter aircraft, but these services were suspended during the transition to the New Order in the mid-to-late 1960s. Air services resumed in 1971, when Bouraq Indonesian Airlines began operating routes to Palangkaraya using Douglas DC-3 aircraft.

On 24 September 1973, the Central Kalimantan regional government officially handed over the airfield to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation under the Ministry of Transportation. Following the transfer, full administrative responsibility shifted from the regional to the central government, which began upgrading the airport's facilities, including extending the runway to 1,500 m × 30 m and improving other airport infrastructure. The upgrades were completed in February 1974, allowing the airport to accommodate Fokker F27 aircraft, with the first test landing conducted using an aircraft operated by Bouraq. Bouraq subsequently began operating inter-Kalimantan flights to and from Palangkaraya, including routes such as Banjarmasin–Palangkaraya–Pangkalan Bun and Semarang–Pangkalan Bun–Palangkaraya–Banjarmasin.

In November 1988, Tjilik Riwut was officially designated a National Hero of Indonesia through Presidential Decree No. 108/TK/1988. He was already a well-respected figure among the people of Central Kalimantan, known for his role as a freedom fighter during the Indonesian National Revolution. Tjilik Riwut initially served as a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP) before joining the Indonesian Air Force, where he rose to the rank of Major and later Air Commodore. He played a key role in the fight against Dutch colonial forces and led the first parachute operation in Indonesian military history. He was also instrumental in fully integrating the Dutch-controlled territories in Borneo into the Republic of Indonesia. Tjilik Riwut later became the second governor of Central Kalimantan. To honor his legacy, the name of Panarung Airfield was officially changed to Tjilik Riwut Airport on Heroes' Day, 10 November 1988. The renaming was formalized by the Minister of Transportation at the time, Azwar Anas.

Contemporary history

By the late 1990s, the airport had undergone further upgrades to accommodate aircraft as large as the Douglas DC-9 and Fokker 100. During the decade, several airlines operated services at Palangkaraya, including Merpati Nusantara Airlines, which served Jakarta using Fokker F28 aircraft, and Sempati Air, which operated flights to Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, and Surabaya using Fokker F27 aircraft.

On 15 August 2007, Garuda Indonesia resumed direct flights between Jakarta and Palangkaraya, marking its return to the city after nearly two decades. Garuda Indonesia had first launched a Palangkaraya–Jakarta service on 10 August 1984, using the Fokker F28. However, the service operated for only four years, until 1988, when the Indonesian government began integrating the operations of Garuda Indonesia and Merpati Nusantara Airlines. Under the resulting policy, most of Garuda Indonesia’s domestic routes were transferred to Merpati, while Garuda focused primarily on international services, with Merpati serving as its domestic feeder airline. Merpati subsequently withdrew from Palangkaraya altogether amid growing competition from airlines such as Sriwijaya Air and Batavia Air, ending its services to both Jakarta and Surabaya.

On 1 January 2019, the Minister of Transportation transferred the operations of the airport from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to Angkasa Pura II, now known as InJourney Airports.

Following the opening of the new terminal in 2019, all passenger flights were relocated there, leaving the old terminal abandoned and increasingly overgrown with vegetation. Although there are plans to convert the old terminal into a cargo facility, these have yet to be implemented. There are also proposals to repurpose the building as an Emergency Operations Center, which would function as a command hub for managing critical situations such as aircraft hijackings, accidents, and other emergencies. In addition, it is intended to serve as a coordination center for the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) and helicopter operators during forest fire response operations.