A method for performing band handover in a broadband wireless access system is provided. In this method, a terminal in a band AMC mode in which the terminal transmits and receives data through a band selected from among bands to which a modulation scheme and a coding rate are adaptively applied receives channel status information of each band of a neighboring base station. The terminal then performs handover to the neighboring base station while maintaining the band AMC mode if it is determined based on the received channel status information that a channel status of each band of the neighboring base station satisfies a predetermined condition. This band handover method enables handover to be performed for each specific frequency band of a mobile terminal.