Indonesian volcano eruption halts flights at country’s busiest airport

Jakarta: Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano erupted early on Sunday, prompting the cancellation of all flights at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport as volcanic ash drifted across parts of western Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Geological Agency said the volcanic island in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, between the main Java and Sumatra islands, had shown signs of activity since Friday before erupting for 30 seconds at 3.53am (Jakarta time) on Sunday. The agency’s closed-circuit camera showed lava flares at the mountain.

Volcanic ash spread across parts of the capital, Jakarta, and Lampung province on the southern tip of Sumatra island, Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said.

“Due to increased activity from the Mount Anak Krakatau eruption, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has temporarily suspended flight operations from 5.30am to 9.30am,” the airport said in a travel advisory on Sunday.

Passengers at the country’s busiest airport sought refunds and reclaimed checked baggage as departure boards displayed a growing list of cancelled flights.

The closure affected 209 flight movements and about 22,800 passengers on Sunday, including the busy domestic route to Makassar in South Sulawesi, while Singapore was the international destination with the highest number of disrupted flights.

Other international flight disruptions, including cancellations, delays and rescheduled services, involved Hong Kong, Sydney and Amsterdam, as well as Seoul, South Korea, Doha, Qatar, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Domestic flights to Lampung, Bali and Surabaya were also cancelled or diverted.

Four Qantas flights – the arriving and departing non-stop services between Sydney and Jakarta and Melbourne and Jakarta – were all cancelled on Sunday as a result of the eruption. Flight paths for other Qantas services traversing the region were disrupted.

Qantas said its meteorologists and operations teams were closely monitoring conditions in and around Jakarta, and thanked affected customers for their patience.

A Garuda Indonesia service from Sydney to Jakarta scheduled for Sunday morning was also delayed, as airlines waited for the volcanic ash disruption to pass.

Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it was closely monitoring the eruption’s impact on air travel and co-ordinating with airlines, airport operators, air navigation services and the meteorology agency. It said 170 aircraft parked overnight at Soekarno-Hatta remained on airport aprons.

“Safety remains our top priority in every operational decision,” Lukman F. Laisa, Ministry of Transportation director general of civil aviation, said in a statement.

He warned that flight schedules could face cascading disruptions affecting aircraft rotations, fleet availability and terminal capacity as airlines work to restore operations.

Authorities urged travellers to check with airlines for the latest flight information and advised passengers to temporarily avoid the airport unless necessary.

Indonesia’s volcanology agency and the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Australia identified two ash clouds using satellite imagery.

One plume rose to an altitude of 6100 metres while drifting north-east, affecting parts of Jakarta, Banten, West Java and surrounding waters.

A second cloud reached 15,200 metres and was moving westward and north-westward, covering parts of Banten, Lampung and Bengkulu provinces, the southern Sunda Strait and sections of the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra.

No casualties were reported, and no evacuation order was issued. The nearest settlement is more than 16 kilometres away. But residents and visitors were warned to stay at least 3 kilometres from the volcano’s active crater.

Anak Krakatau, which means “child of Krakatau”, is the offspring of the famous Krakatau, whose monumental 1883 eruption triggered a period of global cooling.

The eruption caused a tsunami in 2018 that killed at least 430 people in Sumatra and Java. Researchers believe volcanic activity triggered an underwater landslide and caused a large chunk of Anak Krakatau’s south-west slope to collapse and displace a large volume of water.

Since then, the volcano has been rated at the second-highest alert status on a scale of four. Scientists said Anak Krakatau island was now only about a quarter of its original size.