Jakarta's main airport reopens after Anak Krakatau ash grounded 3,000 flights

Indonesia's main airport opened again in the first hours of 8 September. The Transport Ministry said Soekarno-Hatta in Tangerang, Halim Perdanakusuma in Jakarta, Husein Sastranegara in Bandung and two other Java hubs were back in service after volcanic ash from Anak Krakatau closed them through the weekend and most of Monday.

Anak Krakatau, the cone that grew out of the 1883 Krakatoa caldera in the Sunda Strait, erupted on 5 September with a lava fountain and an ash column that reached high altitude. Ash drifted over Jakarta and West Java. Eight airports shut. By Monday morning Infrastructure Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono put the disruption at 2,961 flights cancelled, delayed or diverted and about 341,000 travellers affected. A later Transport Ministry cut of the same data, taken at 9 a.m. on 7 September, counted about 2,300 flights and 270,337 passengers since 5 September.

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi told President Prabowo Subianto in a virtual meeting on Monday that Soekarno-Hatta had returned four consecutive negative paper tests for ash on the ground and that he still would not reopen until he was sure, because the wind had shifted during the event. Closures were first extended to 6 p.m. local time on Monday, then to 11.59 p.m. for Soekarno-Hatta and six others so that runways, taxiways and aprons could be cleaned and airlines could get aircraft into position.

Atung Bungsu Airport in Pagar Alam, South Sumatra, reopened at 9 a.m. on Monday after an assessment found it clear. The other seven stayed shut through the working day. The eight originally closed were Soekarno-Hatta, Halim Perdanakusuma, Radin Inten II in Lampung, Husein Sastranegara, Budiarto in Curug, Pondok Cabe in South Tangerang, Taufik Kiemas in Pesisir Barat and Atung Bungsu.

While those fields were dark, the ministry pushed traffic onto five alternate airports running 24 hours: Kertajati in Majalengka, Juanda in Surabaya, Ahmad Yani in Semarang, Adi Soemarmo in Surakarta and Yogyakarta International. Garuda Indonesia moved Jeddah, Medina and Amsterdam flights through Kertajati. Lion Air planned Jeddah from the same field. Saudia was listed for Yogyakarta. Extra domestic sectors were added from Denpasar, Batam, Makassar and Pekanbaru.

Schools in the ash zone shifted to remote classes. Health offices warned about breathing the fine glass in the ash. The geology agency said further eruptions were possible even as the immediate pulse eased. Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery from earlier in 2026 had already shown ash drifting north over the strait. The 5 September fountain was photographed from the water by Lampung provincial authorities.

Reopening an airport after ash is a cleaning and inspection job, not a ribbon cutting. Engines ingesting volcanic glass can fail. That is why Purwagandhi waited through four negative tests and a night of sweeping. The queue that matters now is the passenger backlog: hundreds of thousands of tickets that have to be reissued onto aircraft that may not be where they were supposed to be on Friday night.

Two of the original eight fields were still listed as shut in some early 8 September wrap-ups. Airlines and the ministry will publish the working list through the day. Travellers holding tickets through Soekarno-Hatta should treat the Instagram notice from the airport operator as the start of operations, not as a promise that every delayed flight leaves on the original bank.