Taiping Airport - History

History

The Taiping Airport which located in Assam Kumbang also called as Tekah Airport. The airport was built in 1929 and claimed as the first airport officially established in Federated Malay States and also in South East Asia. The airport was not much important compare to other airports that mushrooming after the establishment of the first at Taiping. Besides, serving as a commercial airport for the use of the British officers and European merchants. The airport also served as the airstrip for the Royal Malayans Air Force (RMF). The airport served short distance destinations such as to Alor Star, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The Penang to Singapore flight routes runs a daily stop by at the Taiping Airport. The first Malaya airway company, the Wearne Air Service Company made a daily flight to Taiping, to deliver newspapers to the town. After the end of the Japanese Occupation the destination to other Malay states were canceled, the airport only served flight to other airports within Perak state, and only the Ipoh Airport was authorized to serve flights to other states. The airport also achieved fame through the famous American aviator, Amelia Mary Earhart in 1937, when she was doing her world flight and stopover at the Taiping Airport for refueling petrol. Amelia Earhart was doing her flight route from Thailand to Singapore, her permission to land at Taiping Airport was allowed on 7 June 1937 by the then Resident-General of Malaya. The airport also marked a significant in the history of Malaysia, when Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta later became the President and Vice-President of Indonesia landed at the airport on 12 August 1945 for a meeting with Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmi and Ibrahim Yaakub who were leaders of a political party named KRIS to talk about the possibility of joining Malaya with Indonesia, when Indonesia achieved independence. The meeting was arranged by the Japanese officers during the World War II. However, the plan was never succeed and Indonesia announced its independence without Malaya. In February 2007, the Chief State Minister of Perak, Datuk Seri Mohammad Tajol Rosli bin. Ghazali announced that the airport had been chosen as the hub for Global Flying Hospitals (GHF), which is an international organization that brings humanitarian medical support to developing nations. Unfortunately, the plan was not carried out, because the runway at the airport was too short (about 200 feet long) to accommodate the GFH’s planes, as the GFH using the A320 Airbus, the GFH now stationed at the Subang Airport.