Indonesia’s skies grounded, passengers stranded.

Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island about 150 km from Jakarta, erupted late Friday, lifting lava fountains and sending a thick ash cloud over the capital and the nearby Lampung province. With ash concentrations high enough to threaten aviation, Jakarta’s Soekarno‑Hatta International Airport and three other nearby airports have shut down operations until Monday evening. The result has been a loss of more than 2,000 flights and an estimated 270,000 passengers left without a means to travel home.

Eruption details

Satellite data shows ash reaching 6,000 metres over Java and 15,000 metres on Sumatra. The volcano remains seismically active, with the last eruption recorded at 20:23 on Sunday. Indonesia’s Geological Agency cautions that future eruptions are likely, and the ash plume could drift further depending on weather patterns.

Travel chaos

Queues formed at departure halls as stranded passengers queued for refunds and updates. One traveler, Finna, said the morning flights were repeatedly rescheduled; she eventually took a night intercity train and arrived at Jakarta’s airport at 03:00 Monday. Conservation volunteer Jo Shaw, who was touring Java with her NGO, reported that her expedition had to abandon plans to camp at Ujung Kulon National Park because authorities raised the volcano’s alert level.

“Being stranded at an airport hotel is a minor inconvenience,” Shaw added, “but I’m more concerned about the rhino teams working under these conditions.”

A newly married Malaysian couple, who had been honeymooning in Bali, said their return flight to Kuala Lumpur was pushed back to 11 September. “We only prepared enough money for the honeymoon and were supposed to return yesterday,” they told the national news agency Bernama.

Safety measures

Authorities impose a 3 km exclusion zone around the crater and forbid vessels of any kind from passing through the same radius. The meteorological agency BMKG confirmed that no tsunami warning has been issued, although the volcano’s recent collapse in 2018 once triggered a deadly tsunami.

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi explained that airports conduct ash‑level tests every 30 minutes to gauge whether conditions improve or worsen. He warned that, due to dynamic weather, the exact duration of the closures remains uncertain.

Report by Farida Susanty in Jakarta and Koh Ewe in Singapore.