Balikpapan Transport

Sepinggan is now Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport (BPN), running around 50 flights a day. Domestic services reach Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, Kalimantan's Banjarmasin and Tarakan, and now Bali direct, which ends the old transit through Surabaya. Scoot flies to Singapore, AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines to Kuala Lumpur, Royal Brunei to Bandar Seri Begawan. SilkAir, named in the original article, no longer exists.

The airport is the main commercial gateway to Nusantara (IKN), the new national capital rising to the north; IKN's own airport still handles only government flights at the time of writing. New toll roads put central IKN and the provincial capital Samarinda roughly an hour away, and Cititrans and Bacitra shuttles run to both from Sepinggan.

Semayang, Balikpapan's port, remains a busy Pelni hub. The Balikpapan-Surabaya sailing is one of the country's busiest passenger routes, with further links to Makassar and across the Makassar Strait. Book through the Pelni Mobile app rather than the port counter.

Around town, Gojek and Grab now dominate, by car or motorbike. The coloured angkot minivans still run fixed routes for a few thousand rupiah but are patchy and are being reworked as bus feeders; the Bacitra city bus, launched in 2024, is fare-free. Skip the phone-booked taxi.

Contributor: nicklemeister

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