Indonesia reopens Jakarta airport as Anak Krakatau ash clears

JAKARTA: Indonesia has reopened its main airport in Jakarta and four other airports after volcanic ash from Mount Anak Krakatau cleared from surrounding airspace, allowing flight operations to gradually resume.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the country’s main aviation hub, resumed operations on Tuesday after strong winds pushed volcanic ash away from the area.

Four additional airports, including another facility serving Jakarta and an airport in nearby Bandung, also reopened. Another airport had resumed operations a day earlier, while two airports remained closed because of continued safety concerns.

The closures were imposed after a series of eruptions from Mount Anak Krakatau spread ash across parts of Java, including Jakarta and surrounding areas.

The disruptions affected hundreds of thousands of travellers and caused widespread flight cancellations, delays and diversions.

Indonesian authorities said around 341,000 passengers were affected, with nearly 3,000 flights disrupted across the airports that were temporarily closed.

Transport authorities said airlines would gradually restore normal schedules as conditions improve. However, officials warned that further delays could occur because aircraft that remained at the main Jakarta airport during the closure must undergo safety checks before returning to service.

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said 178 aircraft were at Soekarno-Hatta when the airport was shut and authorities still needed to assess their airworthiness.

The disruption left many passengers stranded at airports.

Some travellers reported sleeping at terminals while waiting for their flights to be rescheduled. One passenger who had arrived in Jakarta to travel to South Korea said his cancelled flight had been moved to later in the week.

Authorities have stressed that the airport closures were necessary because volcanic ash can pose a serious danger to aircraft engines and aviation systems.

Anak Krakatau erupted three more times on Tuesday morning, according to Indonesia’s volcano monitoring authorities. The immediate scale of those eruptions was not known, but the volcano remained at Level 3 on Indonesia’s four-tier alert system.

Officials are continuing to monitor the volcano and atmospheric conditions closely.

Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to volcanic activity because it lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone where several tectonic plates meet and where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.

Anak Krakatau, whose name means “child of Krakatau”, emerged from the sea in the decades following the catastrophic eruption of the original Krakatau volcano.

The 1883 Krakatau eruption was among the most destructive volcanic events in recorded history. It triggered powerful tsunamis and killed more than 36,000 people.