Borneo Wonder Sceneries has recently released their rendition of Sandakan Airport (WBKS) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, serving Sandakan, the capital of the Sandakan District in Sabah, Malaysia. 

Sandakan Airport’s history dates back to World War 2 when the Royal Air Force picked the site to build an airfield but didn’t actually get to do much other than get rid of the vegetation before the Japanese invasion of Borneo. The Japanese Army, on the other hand, needed a refueling stop between the peninsular Malaya and the Philippines, transferring over 1,500 prisoners of war from the UK and Australia to work on the construction. Work started in August 1942 and saw partial completion by December of that same year, when a bomber aircraft landed in Sandakan for the first time, opening it for service. 

The runway was recently extended to 2,500m, with an expansion plan that goes all the way back to 2017, with operations commencing in 2019 but delayed due to the pandemic and finally reaching completion in 2022, allowing the operation of popular narrowbody aircraft like the B737, A320, and the A321. Widebody aircraft can also operate on it with payload/range restrictions. 

It’s served by AirAsia (Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia Airlines (Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur), and MASwings (Kudat, Lahad Datu, Tawau), averaging around 900,000 passengers yearly.

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with a fully modeled terminal (including interior), landside buildings, custom ground textures, custom ground markings, and a custom jetway model.

It’s available on SimMarket for roughly $11.63, requiring at least 899 MB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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