6 Indonesian Airports Remain Closed as Anak Krakatau Ash Disrupts Flights
Volcanic Ash From Anak Krakatau Grounds Thousands of Flights Across Indonesia
Kabarsaji.com – More than 170,000 passengers found themselves stranded across Indonesian airports on Monday, September 7, 2026, after a fresh eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau sent a dense plume of volcanic ash drifting toward the country's busiest aviation corridors. The Transportation Ministry confirmed that six airports remained shut in its latest operational bulletin, leaving travelers unable to depart or arrive at major hubs in and around Jakarta.
The disruption reached a cumulative total of 1,558 delayed or cancelled flights across eight affected airports since the eruption began late Friday. Over 900 of those disrupted services were linked to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the primary international gateway serving the Jakarta metropolitan area. The scale of the shutdown made it one of the largest single-event aviation disruptions in recent Indonesian history.
Six Airports Under Closure Order
By Monday morning, the Ministry of Transportation's Director General of Civil Aviation, Lukman F. Laisa, confirmed that closures at six airports had been extended until 8:59 a.m. local time (09:00 WIB, Western Indonesian Time). The affected facilities and their respective shutdown windows were:
CGK – Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (closed 23:20 to 08:59 WIB) HLP – Halim Perdanakusuma Airport (closed 23:26 to 08:59 WIB) TKG – Radin Inten II Airport, Lampung (closed 23:23 to 08:59 WIB) BDO – Husein Sastranegara Airport, Bandung (closed 23:31 to 08:59 WIB) RTO – Budiarto Airport, Curug (closed 23:29 to 08:59 WIB) PCB – Pondok Cabe Airport (closed 23:36 to 08:59 WIB)
Two additional airports — Taufik Kiemas and Atung Bungsu — had been affected during the earlier phase of the eruption, bringing the total number of impacted facilities to eight. Soekarno-Hatta sits more than 150 kilometers from the volcanic source, yet the prevailing wind patterns carried ash directly over its flight paths.
Two Ash Dispersion Clusters Identified
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) tracked the ash movement using data from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), and Himawari-9 geostationary satellite imagery. As of 4 a.m. local time on September 6, BMKG identified two distinct clusters of ash dispersion.
The first cluster was traveling in a northeast-to-south trajectory across portions of Jakarta, Banten province, West Java, and adjacent waters. Ash within this cluster reached altitudes of approximately 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) above sea level, with the dispersion layer extending from the surface upward. A second cluster remained concentrated around the volcano itself and its immediate surroundings.
Volcanic ash poses a severe threat to jet aircraft. Fine glass-like particles can erode turbine blades, clog fuel nozzles, and degrade cockpit visibility. For these reasons, aviation authorities suspend operations at any airport where ash concentration exceeds safe thresholds, regardless of how far the volcano sits from the runway.
Alternative Landing Sites and Passenger Guidance
Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi announced that several secondary airports, including facilities in Semarang and Surabaya, had been readied as alternative landing points for aircraft unable to reach their original destinations. Airlines and passengers were urged to monitor updated schedules and adjust travel plans while closures persisted.
In the Jakarta area, schools shifted to online instruction on Monday to keep students clear of ash-affected zones. The move reflected the broader public-health dimension of the event, as fine particulate matter from volcanic eruptions can aggravate respiratory conditions.
Maritime Precautions in the Sunda Strait
Ships transiting the Sunda Strait — the narrow waterway separating Java from Sumatra — were advised to heighten navigational vigilance. Local port authorities imposed a three-kilometer exclusion zone around Mount Anak Krakatau, barring vessels from entering the area while volcanic activity continued. The strait carries a substantial share of regional container and bulk-cargo traffic, making any disruption to safe passage a matter of economic as well as safety concern.
No Imminent Tsunami Threat
Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) assessed that the eruption posed no immediate tsunami risk. Agency chief Suharyanto outlined a set of mitigation measures, including cloud seeding operations designed to induce rainfall that would wash volcanic ash from populated areas.
"Heavy rain could help clear the ash that had been disrupting daily activities," Suharyanto stated.
Background: A Volcano Born from Catastrophe
Anak Krakatau — literally "child of Krakatoa" — first emerged from the sea in the 1920s within the caldera left behind by the catastrophic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, one of the deadliest volcanic events in recorded history. That earlier explosion generated a tsunami that killed roughly 36,000 people across the Sunda Strait and was audible thousands of kilometers away.
Since its birth, Anak Krakatau has erupted periodically. In 2018, a partial collapse of its crater triggered a local tsunami that claimed dozens of lives along the Lampung coast. The current episode, which began late Friday with lava fountains and booming sounds audible up to 700 kilometers away, produced an ash column reaching roughly 6,000 meters on the Java-facing flank and a plume extending to about 15,000 meters (50,000 feet) over the Sumatra side and parts of Banten. Two additional eruptions were recorded on Sunday before the ash reached aviation altitudes over Monday's flight corridors.
As the ash cloud gradually dispersed and airport operations resumed through the morning, authorities emphasized that monitoring would continue and that further closures could not be ruled out should wind patterns shift the plume back toward populated areas.
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