Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport

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Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (IATA: PBM, ICAO: SMJP), also known as Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, is an airport located in the town of Zanderij, 45 km south of Paramaribo. It is Suriname’s main international gateway operated by Airport Management, Ltd./ NV Luchthavenbeheer.

Prior to World War II, Zandery Airport was a Pan American World Airways stop. After the fall of the Netherlands to Nazi forces in 1940, the United States obtained military basing rights to the airport from the Netherlands government-in-exile in London. The first American forces arrived at the airport on 30 November 1941 and expanded the facilities to be a transport base for sending Lend-Lease supplies to England via air routes across the South Atlantic Ocean.

 

With the United States entry into the war in December 1941, the importance of Zandery Field increased drastically, becoming a major transport base on the South Atlantic route of Air Transport Command ferrying supplies and personnel to Freetown Airport, Sierra Leone and onwards to the European and African theaters of the war. In addition, antisubmarine patrols were flown from the airfield over the southern Caribbean and South Atlantic coastlines.

With the end of World War II Zandery Airfield was reduced in scope to a skeleton staff. It was closed as a military facility on 30 April 1946 and turned over to Dutch authorities which returned it to a civil airport.

On June 7, 1989, a Douglas DC-8 of Surinam Airways from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands crashed during approach to Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, killing 176 of the 187 on-board. The crash was the worst ever aviation disaster in Suriname’s history. Among the dead were fifteen Surinamese-Dutch professional football players.

Other Information

  • Airport type : Public
  • Operator : Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (JAPIA) Corporation
  • Serves : Paramaribo
  • Location : Zanderij, Suriname
  • Elevation AMSL : 59 ft / 18 m
  • Coordinates : 05°27′10.19″N 55°11′16.02″W
  • Runways Direction : 11/29
  • Length : 11,417 ft (3480 m)
  • Surface : Asphalt

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