Transport
Balikpapan has the second busiest airport on Borneo, the Sepinggan International Airport, after the Kota Kinabalu International Airport in the Sabah state of Malaysian Borneo. Domestic routes currently using it are Batavia Air, Kartika Airlines, Lion Air, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Sriwijaya Air, Trigana Air. International routes currently using it are Air Asia, Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, and Silk Air.
The airport is one of the nine principal locations near Indonesia used by Muslims on their Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1996–97 the airport served over 4,500 East Borneo pilgrims and in 1997–98 it served pilgrims from East Borneo, South Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi.
As well as the airport Balikpapan also has Semayang seaport. It serves commercial boats to many destinations to Indonesia including Jakarta, Makassar, Manado, Pare Pare and Surabaya. In the 1990s maritime transport was very popular. Today, due to more affordable and efficient airplane travel, more people choose to fly. Taking the ferry is an alternative for traveling to other coastal areas in East Borneo, such as Penajam.
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“One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and ... powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)