Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport
Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport
Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie International Airport (IATA: PLW, ICAO: WAFF, formerly WAML), formerly known as Masovu Airport, is an international airport near Palu, the capital city of the province of Central Sulawesi on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. As the largest airport in Central Sulawesi, Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport serves as the primary gateway to Palu and its surrounding areas. The airport offers connections to major cities across Indonesia, including Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar, as well as regional flights to other cities and towns in Sulawesi. In 2025, the airport was officially stated as an international airport by the Ministry of Transportation of Indonesia. The airport's name consists of two parts: Mutiara and SIS Al-Jufrie. Mutiara means "pearl" in Indonesian, while SIS Al-Jufrie is an abbreviation of Sayyid Idrus bin Salim Al-Jufri, an Arab-Indonesian religious leader from Central Sulawesi. He was a prominent Islamic missionary in the region until his death in Palu in 1969. SIS Al-Jufri also founded Alkhairaat, a religious organization that grew and flourished across eastern Indonesia.
Location
0.916°S, 119.909°E · 87 m s. n. m. (284 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 1
Tower
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 They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation.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
Construction and early history
The airport was built in 1954 by the Central Sulawesi regional government. At the time, the area was still under the jurisdiction of Donggala Regency. It was named Masowu or Masovu, which in the local Kaili language means "dusty." The name reflected the airfield's surroundings, where dust would be stirred up whenever an aircraft landed. The airport was renamed to Mutiara Airport in 1957, meaning "pearl" in Indonesian, during a visit by Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. The name was inspired by Sukarno's observation that the area glistened like a pearl as he landed in Palu.
During the Permesta rebellion in the late 1950s, the airport was captured by Permesta rebels along with the city of Palu. It was recaptured by government forces on 1 April 1958 following a joint operation by the Indonesian Air Force and the Mobile Brigade Corps.
The airport changed hands several times. It was initially managed by the Donggala Regency Government before being transferred to the Indonesian Air Force in 1958 during the height of the Permesta rebellion. Administration was returned to the Donggala Regency Government in 1963, before the airport was officially transferred to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transportation on 28 October 1964. The airport began serving commercial flights to Jakarta via Makassar on 13 October 1964, operated by Garuda Indonesia, making it one of the last two major cities in Sulawesi, along with Kendari, to be connected to the capital.
By the 1970s, the airport's facilities remained very modest. Its runway measured only 1,100 m × 30 m, limiting the types of aircraft it could accommodate to smaller Fokker aircraft. Despite these limitations, the airport was considered crucial, as it was the only airport in Central Sulawesi handling scheduled passenger flights at the time. It had already been designated as a transit hub, with flights to Manado and Balikpapan, while also serving Ambon and Ternate in the Maluku Islands via Manado. These services were operated by Bouraq Indonesian Airlines. The airport also served as a hub for pioneer flights to remote areas of Central Sulawesi, including Toli-Toli and Luwuk, operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines using DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft.
Contemporary history
In 2010, construction began on a new terminal to replace the old terminal, which had become overcrowded due to increasing passenger numbers. The new terminal, built with a government investment of 139.2 billion rupiah, was officially inaugurated on 13 April 2014, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Central Sulawesi. On the same occasion, the airport was renamed to Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport, in honor of Idrus bin Salim Al-Jufri, a prominent religious leader from Central Sulawesi. He was the founder of Alkhairaat, the largest Islamic community organization in eastern Indonesia based in Palu.
On 28 September 2018, Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport sustained severe damage during the Sulawesi earthquake and was forced to close after large cracks, including one measuring 500 meters long, formed on the runway. Additionally, the airport's control tower collapsed, and its navigation systems suffered extensive damage. Anthonius Gunawan Agung, an air traffic control officer, was directing a Batik Air flight, the last departure of the day, when the earthquake struck. He was fatally injured after falling from the collapsing tower and died hours later. Major structural damage was also reported in the airport, with the roof the airport's terminal reportedly caved in. The airport was reopened for limited operation on 29 September 2018. Due to the damage in the airport, hundreds of passengers were stranded and were told to wait in the airport's apron. Normal operation returned on service on 30 September.
Following the earthquake, the airport terminal was rebuilt and renovated. The reconstruction and renovation works were completed in 2024, with the newly restored airport officially inaugurated by then-President Joko Widodo. The total cost of the reconstruction was approximately 599 billion rupiah.
The airport's status became international on 11 August 2025 and it plans to operate international flights to 28 countries in 2026. The airport's first international flight was inaugurated on 6 August 2026, with a charter service from Palu to Guangzhou, China, operated by Garuda Indonesia. Plans are underway to designate the airport as a Hajj embarkation point, with flights to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, planned to serve Hajj pilgrims.
Airlines operating here · 7
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: Releno1234 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW
MLA
“Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_plw,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PLW |title=Mutiara - SIS Al-Jufrie Airport (PLW) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}