Asia’s air travel network is facing yet another punishing spell of disruption, with a fresh wave of cancellations and delays rippling from China and Indonesia to Japan and beyond. According to aggregated operational data from regional aviation trackers and industry reports, at least 48 flights were canceled and around 1,500 were delayed over a short window in early February, disrupting services by carriers including Batik Air, Xiamen Air, 9 Air, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Hainan Airlines and others. Key hubs such as Harbin in northeastern China, Kagoshima and Osaka in Japan, and major airports in Indonesia and Southeast Asia have been particularly affected, creating a travel nightmare at the height of the winter and Lunar New Year travel period.
A New Surge in Disruptions Across Asian Skies
The latest turbulence in Asia’s skies follows a now-familiar pattern for travelers who have grown accustomed to rolling delays and cancellations across the region. Aviation disruption bulletins indicate that China, Indonesia and neighboring markets triggered the cancellation of 48 flights alongside more than 1,500 delays in the space of a couple of days, with the brunt of the impact concentrated on busy domestic and short-haul international routes. While figures vary across data providers, the overall trend is clear: punctuality has deteriorated sharply, and even minor operational hiccups are now cascading quickly into widespread schedule chaos.
Recent incident summaries from regional emergency and infrastructure monitoring services point to a multi-country disturbance centered on several Southeast Asian and East Asian gateways, including Chinese coastal hubs, Indonesian terminals and key transit points that funnel traffic deeper into Japan, Korea and the wider region. This latest spike comes on the heels of comparable wave patterns seen in late 2025, when data compiled by travel industry publications showed hundreds of Asian flights delayed or scrapped in clusters, from Shanghai and Beijing to Jakarta, Sapporo and Guangzhou. In other words, the current situation is not an isolated fluke but part of a broader instability in the region’s aviation operations.
For passengers on the ground, the numbers translate into packed departure halls, snaking queues at customer service counters and mounting anxiety about missed connections. As flights stack up on airport departure boards in Harbin, Kagoshima, Osaka and secondary Chinese and Southeast Asian cities, the challenge for airlines is to maintain basic schedule integrity while dealing with crew-duty limits, aircraft rotations and ground handling bottlenecks.
Where the Turbulence Hit Hardest
Harbin, the gateway to China’s frigid northeast and a popular winter tourism destination, has emerged as one of the standout trouble spots in the latest disruption cycle. The airport’s role as both a domestic connector and a link to regional routes into Japan and other nearby markets makes it particularly vulnerable when delays ripple across the network. Carriers like Xiamen Air, 9 Air and Hainan Airlines, which operate dense domestic schedules feeding into coastal hubs, are especially exposed when early-morning disruptions upset the day’s tightly planned rotations.
Further east, Japanese facilities such as Kagoshima and Osaka Kansai have also seen schedules fray. Kagoshima, already used to volatility due to its proximity to active volcanoes and weather-prone sea lanes, has in recent months endured multiple rounds of cancellations and delays triggered by ash advisories and wider regional knock-on effects. Osaka Kansai, meanwhile, serves as a critical bridge between Japan’s domestic network and international services into China and Southeast Asia. When flights to and from China and Korea are delayed or cut, the airport’s role as a transfer node for All Nippon Airways, Asiana, Cathay Pacific and other carriers means connecting passengers are among the first to feel the impact.
Indonesia, too, appears in the latest disruption tallies, with Jakarta and other major hubs facing compounding challenges. Domestic operators like Batik Air and Citilink, which already reported significant delay and cancellation counts in late 2025 and early 2026 according to travel industry monitoring, have again been thrust into the spotlight as bad weather, congested airspace and creaking infrastructure all converge. The result has been a surge in late departures, missed slot times and diverted aircraft that reverberate outward to regional partners and code-share operators as far away as Japan and southern China.
Airlines Under Pressure: From Batik Air to Cathay Pacific
The list of airlines caught in the latest operational tangle reads like a directory of Asia’s short- and medium-haul workhorses. Indonesian carriers Batik Air and Citilink, Chinese operators such as Xiamen Air, Hainan Airlines and 9 Air, and full-service heavyweights including All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines and Cathay Pacific have all seen their punctuality metrics hammered. Recent snapshots from aviation news outlets highlight a pattern seen repeatedly over the past several months: mid-sized regional carriers rack up double-digit cancellations and dozens of delays on a single congested day, while major flag carriers log hundreds of late departures across their networks.
Travel trade reports from late 2025 and January 2026 documented how airlines like Air China, Hainan Airlines, Batik Air and All Nippon collectively produced clusters of delays and cancellations at airports including Beijing Capital, Shanghai Pudong and Narita. These earlier episodes often stretched into several days of rolling disruption, with aircraft and crews falling out of position. The current wave shows similar hallmarks. Once a morning departure from a key hub is pushed back or grounded, it tends to knock onto subsequent flights on the same aircraft or crew pairing, especially for carriers operating high-frequency shuttles between China and Japan or Indonesia and regional hubs.
Low-cost and hybrid carriers have been particularly hard-hit. Operators such as 9 Air and certain Japanese regional airlines rely heavily on rapid turnarounds and tight duty rosters to maintain profitability. Even slight timing dislocations force last-minute swaps or cancellations, especially on thinner routes where spare aircraft are scarce. Full-service carriers, too, are not immune. All Nippon, Asiana and Cathay Pacific still operate dense schedules in and out of busy nodes like Osaka, Fukuoka, Beijing and Harbin. When those nodes get clogged, it becomes harder to protect long-haul connections to Europe, North America and Oceania.
Why This Keeps Happening: Weather, Volcanic Activity and Capacity Strains
Behind the statistics lies a web of interlocking causes that have made Asia’s airspace particularly fragile this winter. Seasonal weather remains a perennial culprit. Northern China, Korea and Japan are in the grip of their coldest months, when snowstorms, freezing rain and strong crosswinds frequently force runway closures, de-icing delays and revised approach procedures. Harbin and other northern airports are especially vulnerable, as even brief blizzards can quickly overwhelm ground handling staff and equipment that are already stretched thin.
Japan’s southern arc, including Kagoshima and Kyushu, has also wrestled with recurring volcanic activity that disrupts both domestic and international services. In late 2025 and early 2026, eruptions from Sakurajima generated tall ash plumes that prompted dozens of cancellations and at least a hundred delays across carriers operating into Kagoshima and other nearby airports. Every time ash advisories go out, airlines including All Nippon affiliates, foreign long-haul operators and regional carriers like Asiana and Cathay Pacific must re-evaluate routes, holding patterns and alternates, often opting to cancel or significantly delay flights rather than risk engine damage or visibility issues.
Beyond the immediate impact of weather and volcanoes, there is a structural element. Even as airlines restore routes cut during the pandemic years, air traffic control capacity, airport staffing and maintenance operations have not always kept pace. Industry analyses released in December 2025, which highlighted nearly 900 delays and over 60 cancellations across Asian airports in a single snapshot, underscored how chronic understaffing and infrastructure strain have become a persistent risk. In that environment, any shock, whether a storm in Harbin, ash over Kagoshima or congestion over the South China Sea, can tip the system into widespread dysfunction.
Traveler Experiences on the Ground
For the thousands of passengers caught in the latest round of cancellations and delays, the data points translate into hours of uncertainty and mounting expense. Reports from terminals in Shanghai, Osaka and Jakarta describe crowded concourses where travelers queue at airline counters seeking rerouting, hotel vouchers and meal coupons. Flexibility is often limited, especially on popular routes where alternative flights are already fully booked in the busy Lunar New Year season.
International itineraries are particularly vulnerable. A delayed domestic leg from Harbin or an Indonesian secondary city can easily cause a missed connection onto a long-haul Cathay Pacific, Asiana or All Nippon flight bound for Europe or North America. In these cases, rebooking can take days rather than hours, especially where only a few weekly flights operate. Some passengers have turned to high-speed rail within Japan or China to salvage parts of their journey, while others are abandoning regional side trips entirely as they prioritize reaching their final destination.
Language barriers and inconsistent communication remain an enduring complaint. While major carriers push updates through apps and text messages, smaller regional airlines may rely more heavily on airport announcements or counters. During intense disruption episodes, these channels can become overloaded. Travelers in Kagoshima and Harbin have reported conflicting information about new departure times, gate changes and entitlement to compensation or accommodation, further heightening frustration.
How Airlines and Airports Are Responding
Airlines affected by the latest chaos have rolled out a mix of short-term fixes and medium-term operational adjustments in an effort to restore stability. Many are offering free rebooking within a limited date range, waiver of change fees and, in cases of significant delay or cancellation, hotel accommodation and meal vouchers. Some carriers are also deploying larger aircraft on heavily affected trunk routes to clear backlogs of stranded passengers once weather or ash advisories ease.
Operationally, carriers are tweaking scheduling patterns to cope with recurrent bottlenecks. Several Chinese airlines have already trimmed or reshaped their Japan schedules for the Northern Winter 2025/26 season, significantly reducing frequencies on some China–Japan routes and canceling or suspending others entirely. These cuts are intended both to reflect softer demand on politically and economically sensitive routes and to build more slack into operations, reducing the risk that a single delayed rotation will knock out several more.
Airports, for their part, are reinforcing snow-clearing, de-icing and ash-removal protocols as winter and volcanic seasons intersect. Kagoshima’s experience with ashfall over recent months has prompted more aggressive runway inspection and cleaning cycles, although these safety measures inevitably mean more delays. In northern China, winter contingency plans include ramping up equipment readiness and having additional staff on standby when heavy snowfall or ice storms are forecast.
What This Means for Travelers Planning Asia Trips Now
For travelers with upcoming itineraries into or within Asia, the latest wave of disruptions is a clear signal to build flexibility into plans. The pattern of cancellations and delays hitting Harbin, Kagoshima, Osaka and major Chinese and Indonesian hubs suggests that secondary and weather or ash-prone airports are at greater risk of disruption than usual. Where possible, booking flights with longer connection windows, choosing early-day departures and avoiding tight same-day transfers between separate tickets can substantially reduce the chance of being stranded.
Travelers are also increasingly urged by advisers to monitor not only weather forecasts but also volcanic activity and regional aviation advisories in the days leading up to departure. Recent experience from the Sakurajima eruptions and Ethiopian volcanic ash impacts drifting toward South and East Asia has shown how quickly airspace restrictions can be imposed and how widely their effects can spread. A plume that originates far from a traveler’s departure city may still lead to rerouting or last-minute aircraft inspections that ripple across the region’s networks.
Finally, booking with carriers that offer robust customer service, clear digital communication and interline agreements can make a significant difference when things go wrong. Full-service airlines such as All Nippon, Asiana and Cathay Pacific typically have more extensive rebooking options, especially across alliance partners, than smaller point-to-point operators. In a season when 48 cancellations and more than 1,500 delays can materialize across a handful of days, that extra safety net can spell the difference between a frustrating delay and a complete itinerary collapse.
The Outlook: A Fragile System Heading into Spring
Looking ahead, Asia’s aviation system appears likely to remain fragile through the remainder of the Northern Winter 2025/26 season. Weather patterns will stay volatile across northern China, Korea and Japan well into March, while volcanic activity near key Japanese gateways will continue to be closely monitored. Meanwhile, lingering capacity gaps in air traffic control, airport staffing and maintenance facilities leave little margin for error when demand surges around public holidays and festival periods.
Airlines are expected to continue refining schedules and, where necessary, consolidating lightly used routes to free up aircraft and crews for more critical operations. China–Japan routes in particular have already seen deep cuts and adjustments, with dozens of city-pair services reduced or suspended this winter. While these moves may dampen demand on some leisure itineraries, they also aim to restore reliability on core routes that underpin both business and tourism flows.
For now, the message to travelers is one of preparedness rather than panic. The latest episode, in which Indonesia, China, Japan and other markets collectively canceled 48 flights and delayed more than 1,500, shows that Asia’s skies can still turn turbulent with little warning. But armed with realistic buffer times, flexible tickets and up-to-date information, travelers can navigate the region’s increasingly complex air network while minimizing the risk that their own journey becomes part of the next travel nightmare headline.