Indonesia flight disruptions send travellers on marathon journeys as fares surge, trains sell out

JAKARTA: It was supposed to be a short two-hour flight home for 29-year-old Achmad Rifyannur. But when his Bali-Jakarta flight was cancelled on Sunday (Sep 6) due to volcanic ash as a result of Mount Anak Krakatau’s eruption, that trip turned into an arduous 27-hour journey on trains, a ferry and other public transport.“I was supposed to fly back to Jakarta from Bali at 7am on Sunday with AirAsia because I had work on Monday,” the travel influencer told CNA. Achmad Rifyannur is seen here on a train in the late afternoon on Sep 7, 2026, from Semarang to Bekasi on his journey to return home to Jakarta from Bali after flight disruptions due to Mount Anak Krakatau. (Photo: Achmad Rifyannur) Achmad - who has almost one million followers on Instagram - said that he initially tried booking another flight, this time to Bandung, a city in West Java about a two-hour drive from Jakarta. He managed to secure a 1pm flight on Sunday. But as departure time drew closer, that flight, too, was cancelled because of the same volcanic activities.The eruption has caused eight airports to suspend flight operations since Sunday morning, including the country’s main international gateway - the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten near Jakarta. According to the Indonesian Transportation Ministry, as of 9am on Monday, about 2,300 flights were either cancelled, delayed or diverted, affecting more than 270,000 passengers. But one of the eight temporarily-closed airports - the Atung Bungsu Airport in South Sumatra - has since resumed operations.With no indication of when flights would resume, Achmad eventually decided to make the journey home to Jakarta overland, taking a ferry from Gilimanuk in Bali across to Ketapang Ferry Port, Banyuwangi in East Java before continuing by train. Banyuwangi is about 17 hours by train to Jakarta. But direct train tickets to Jakarta were also sold out, with many other travellers facing the same predicament. He was left with little choice but to take a longer route involving several train changes."What should have been a short trip from Bali to Jakarta will now take me about 27 hours," Achmad said. When CNA contacted him on Monday morning, Achmad was still about two-thirds of the way home.Achmad is just one of many travellers who had to make alternative travel arrangements because of the volcanic eruptions. SCRAMBLING TO GET HOMEMalaysian comedian Jason Leong - who had a show in Jakarta on Sep 5 - was due to fly from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang in Selangor state on Batik Air at 11.45am on Sunday. But at around 1am, he was notified that his flight had been cancelled due to volcanic ash.Leong then posted a video on his Instagram asking for alternative routes to return to Malaysia, with suggestions including flying from Bandung, Yogyakarta or Surabaya."Ultimately I decided on Yogyakarta because Surabaya was also near an erupting volcano, and Bandung didn't have direct flights to Kuala Lumpur," Leong told CNA, referring to an eruption at Mount Semeru, some 100km south of Surabaya. He managed to book an AirAsia flight from Yogyakarta International Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Monday at 5.30pm. To get to Yogyakarta, he travelled by train for a little longer than six hours.“I have to say arrangements were made easily but maybe that's also because I travel a lot for work,” said Leong.He added that he was impressed by the communication from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and the information provided by Indonesian government agencies monitoring the weather, air quality and volcanic eruptions.“The communication from airport authorities was clear and constantly updated, as was the information from the relevant agencies.” Passengers wait at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sep 6, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wisnu Agung Prasetyo) Meanwhile, Helen, 58, an Indonesian homemaker living in Singapore, was still weighing her options for an alternative flight to Jakarta.“I was supposed to fly back to Jakarta from Singapore (on Sunday) morning, but my Singapore Airlines flight was affected. I've already rescheduled it, but the earliest available flight I could get is on Sep 12,” Helen - who only wanted to be identified by her first name - told CNA.“It's difficult because my sister is ill, so I'm trying to find another way to get back to Indonesia as soon as possible."Helen said that she had considered flying to Surabaya on Tuesday and continuing her journey to Jakarta by train. But she noted that the fares were steep, at least three times the usual price.Helen eventually booked a flight from Batam to Semarang, a six-hour journey by train or car from Jakarta, because the prices were more affordable. She is due to fly to Semarang on Wednesday and will have to take a ferry from Singapore to Batam before that.. "It's very frustrating because there's so much uncertainty. I understand that there may be circumstances beyond anyone's control, but passengers need clearer information about what their options are." Passengers wait at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sep 6, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wisnu Agung Prasetyo) ALTERNATIVE AIRPORTS READIEDTransportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said that Indonesia is designating six airports in West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java as alternatives. The closest airport to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport - Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, West Java - is about a three-hour drive away from Jakarta. Meanwhile the farthest - Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java - is about a nine-hour train ride from the Indonesian capital."We are urging all airlines, both domestic and international, to use the alternative airports that have been prepared,” Dudy said in a statement on Monday. The minister also promised that there will be free trains and buses for travellers with flights diverted to the six airports. But experts said getting airlines to start diverting flights to these alternative airports is not as simple as it sounds. “Airlines need to send in ground staff (members), maintenance crews and ensure there are enough spare parts to perform these maintenance works. Right now, these resources are stuck in Jakarta and there is no way to fly them to these alternative airports,” independent aviation expert Gerry Soejatman told CNA. To make matters worse, according to the transportation ministry, there are at least 170 airplanes still grounded on Soekarno Hatta International Airport’s tarmac because of Mount Anak Krakatau’s eruption. “With so many planes unable to fly, cancellations and delays will keep happening until the airport is open again,” Gerry said. A man walks past an information board showing cancelled flights due to the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Indonesia on Sep 7, 2026. (Photo: AP/Tatan Syuflana) Meanwhile, ticket prices to and from these alternative airports have since skyrocketed. A Singapore Airline flight from the city-state to Surabaya on Sep 8, for instance, can cost more than 10 million rupiah (US$567) on booking sites or apps, more than twice its normal fare. And these prices are getting steeper as demand grows, like Scoot’s Singapore-Semarang flight on Sep 9. A flight ticket - which initially cost from 4.3 million rupiah when CNA first checked at 9.30am on Monday - rose to 6.6 million rupiah about one hour later.In comparison, the same ticket on a Scoot flight dated Oct 1 costs 2.2 million rupiah. Separately, the shift to rail travel from Surabaya and surrounding areas to Jakarta was also reflected in figures from state railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI). Its Surabaya operational region recorded 6,707 passengers travelling to Jakarta on Sep 7, up 88 per cent from 3,562 passengers a week earlier.The figure was also 44 per cent higher than on Sunday, when 4,669 passengers travelled from Surabaya and surrounding areas to Jakarta. KAI said trains had become an alternative for travellers as the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau affected their transport options, local news outlet Kompas reported. KAI's Surabaya spokesperson Mahendro Trang Bawono said the operator was monitoring the increase in demand and would adjust services or capacity if necessary. VOLCANIC ACTIVITY RECEDINGMount Anak Krakatau has been spewing fountains of hot lava and towering columns of volcanic ash since Sep 4. In 2018, an eruption caused one side of the volcano to collapse, sending a tsunami, which killed more than 400 people on Java and Sumatra. The volcano, whose name means “the child of Krakatoa”, first emerged from the caldera formed by the explosive volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 which triggered a tsunami that killed more than 36,000 people.Officials from the Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency have said that there is no imminent risk of another ​tsunami this time around. In this drone photo released by the Geological Agency of Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Mount Anak Krakatau spews volcanic smoke in Sunda Strait, Indonesia on Sep 5, 2026. (Photo: AP via Badan Geologi) Authorities have put the volcano on alert level 3, the second highest, since it first showed signs of heightened activities last week and barred anyone from getting within a 3km radius of the island volcano. Lana Saria, head of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources’s Geological Agency, said for 25 hours straight between 11pm on Friday and 12am on Sunday, the volcano was having a continuous eruption episode marked by an endless stream of lava spraying out of its magma chamber.By Sunday morning however, the fountain-like lava flow had stopped, although several mild eruptions continue to be recorded. Such development, Lana said, “is for now interpreted as marking the end of the relatively prolonged continuous eruption episode”.Despite the reduced volcanic activity, the alert level and no-go zone remains in place as the agency continues to closely monitor the volcano.Aviation expert Gerry is hoping that this means the airports may soon reopen. “There is only one question on passengers’ minds right now: ‘when will airports reopen and flights resume?’,” he said. Transportation minister Dudy said a number of measures would still need to be carried out, once volcanic ash is no longer detected in the air before airports are allowed to reopen.“We will carry out measures such as cleaning the runways, taxiways and aprons. This is to ensure that when conditions permit, the airport is ready to resume operations," Dudy said.Additional reporting by Johannes Tjendro