Air travel across Asia faced fresh disruption on February 10, 2026, as a new wave of cancellations and delays left passengers stranded from Indonesia and Malaysia to Taiwan and Hong Kong. More than 20 flights were cut on key regional and long haul routes, with carriers including Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, Cathay Pacific, Scoot, Garuda Indonesia and Xiamen Airlines adjusting schedules. Routes linking major hubs such as Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bali, Hong Kong and Taipei were among those affected, compounding what has become a tense and unpredictable period for travelers across the region.

Fresh Cancellations Hit Key Asian Gateways

The latest round of flight disruptions has centered on major hubs in Southeast and East Asia, including Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Taipei. According to same-day operational data tallied on February 10, at least 29 departures were cancelled across Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, affecting both domestic and international services. While the absolute number may appear modest compared with the thousands of daily flights in the region, the impact on specific routes and departure banks has been substantial, creating bottlenecks at peak travel times.

In Indonesia, airports such as Jakarta Soekarno Hatta, Bali’s Ngurah Rai, Makassar and Surabaya have seen repeated cancellations in recent days. Several of these involve popular trunk routes that connect secondary Indonesian cities with Jakarta or Bali, as well as regional services to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Each cut service has a ripple effect for connecting passengers, many of whom are in transit to long haul flights bound for Sydney or other Australasian gateways.

Across the South China Sea, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport have also reported targeted cancellations. A short but strategically important link between Taipei and Hong Kong was temporarily suspended when Cathay Pacific flights on the route were cancelled in both directions. This added strain to already busy schedules at the two hubs and forced last minute rebookings for travelers heading on to Southeast Asia or Australia.

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur’s Network Under Pressure

Kuala Lumpur International Airport has again emerged as one of the focal points of disruption. On February 10, operational data from Malaysia indicated a combination of widespread delays and a smaller but impactful set of cancellations. While the majority of affected flights were delayed rather than cut entirely, Malaysia Airlines and several regional competitors including AirAsia, Firefly, Malindo Air and Scoot all reported irregular operations out of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Langkawi.

Malaysia Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, registered cancellations alongside dozens of delays, particularly on regional services that underpin connectivity to Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta. Some long haul flights out of Kuala Lumpur, including services connecting to Sydney, have also been indirectly affected as passengers missed connections due to late inbound aircraft. For travelers, the disruption has translated into long queues at transfer counters, reissued boarding passes and in some cases unexpected overnights in airport hotels.

AirAsia and other low cost carriers, which operate dense short haul networks from Kuala Lumpur, Penang and other Malaysian gateways, have been working to accommodate displaced passengers on later services. However, with many flights already heavily booked, options have been limited. Travelers bound for holiday destinations such as Bali and regional business centers like Singapore and Bangkok have reported extended waiting times and uncertainty over when they will be able to depart.

Indonesia: Repeated Cancellations on Busy Domestic and Regional Routes

Indonesia has been particularly hard hit, both in this latest episode and in the broader pattern of disruptions seen through early 2026. Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport, Bali’s Ngurah Rai and Makassar’s Sultan Hasanuddin have featured prominently in cancellation and delay statistics. Carriers including Batik Air and Garuda Indonesia, along with several low cost rivals, have trimmed frequencies or scrubbed specific flights on short notice, forcing thousands of passengers to replan trips.

Batik Air has been among the most impacted Indonesian airlines in recent data sets, recording both cancellations and a high volume of delays at Jakarta and other hubs. These disruptions affect heavily trafficked corridors such as Jakarta to Bali, Surabaya, Makassar and Medan, all of which feed international routes onward to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Sydney. When a single domestic leg is cancelled, passengers with through tickets to overseas destinations are left scrambling for alternatives, particularly on weekends and holidays when flights run close to capacity.

For Indonesia’s tourism centers, including Bali and the growing market of secondary destinations like Yogyakarta and Manado, the timing is especially challenging. Hotels and tour operators in Bali report that some guests have arrived a day or more late due to flight cancellations elsewhere in Asia that cascaded into missed connections. Conversely, outbound travelers leaving Bali and other leisure hubs have been stranded when return flights were delayed or cancelled, leading to missed workdays and additional accommodation costs.

In Greater China, a narrow but highly consequential interruption occurred between Hong Kong and Taipei. Cathay Pacific’s service between Hong Kong International Airport and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was cancelled in both directions on a key rotation, temporarily suspending one of the region’s busiest short haul international links. For business travelers and transit passengers, particularly those connecting through Hong Kong to Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok, the cancellation meant missed meetings and urgent rebookings.

The Hong Kong hub has also been contending with a broader wave of delays and limited cancellations. In parallel operational reports on February 10, Hong Kong International logged hundreds of delayed flights and a smaller number of outright cancellations, mainly affecting Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines. Even where flights have operated, extended ground times and air traffic congestion have pushed back departures, undermining the tightly timed bank structure that makes Hong Kong a key connector for Asia Pacific travel.

In Taiwan, the disruption has been compounded by separate operational challenges. Recent runway incidents and temporary closures at Taoyuan have led to holding patterns and fuel contingency concerns for some inbound aircraft in the days leading up to February 10. While those safety related episodes were resolved without incident, they have contributed to a broader sense of fragility in the network that links Taiwan with Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Broader Regional Context: Thousands of Delays and Cancellations

The latest cancellations involving Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air and Cathay Pacific are unfolding against a backdrop of sustained operational stress across Asia’s aviation system. In the 48 hours surrounding February 10, regional data show thousands of flight delays and hundreds of cancellations affecting Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and the United Arab Emirates. Major hubs including Tokyo, Bangkok, Delhi, Jakarta, Singapore Changi and Dubai have all recorded significant disruption, underlining how interconnected and vulnerable the wider network has become.

On February 10 alone, one analysis of performance across several Asian countries reported close to 4,000 delays and dozens of cancellations, with Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo Haneda, Delhi and Bangkok among the hardest hit airports. Another tally focusing on Indonesia, China and Japan identified 48 cancellations and more than 1,500 delays, driven in part by operational issues at Jakarta, Harbin, Kagoshima, Beijing and Osaka. In many of these cases, airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Xiamen Airlines and others have struggled with aircraft rotations, crew availability and congestion both in the air and on the ground.

The cumulative effect for travelers is a sense of fragility and unpredictability that extends beyond any single city pair. A cancelled Batik Air service from Jakarta to Bali can strand an Australian family trying to make a next day flight from Denpasar to Sydney, just as a cancelled Cathay Pacific leg between Hong Kong and Taipei can derail a business traveler’s carefully timed connections to Singapore and Bangkok. For airport operators and tourism boards, each day of large scale disruption carries reputational and economic costs.

Likely Causes and Emerging Patterns

While each airline and airport faces a unique mix of challenges, several themes have emerged from the current wave of disruptions. Industry analysts point to high aircraft utilization, tight crew scheduling, lingering maintenance backlogs and continued imbalances in demand across different markets as underlying factors. In some cases, weather events or air traffic control constraints have acted as immediate triggers, but the repeated nature of cancellations on the same routes suggests deeper structural issues.

Airlines across Asia have been working to rebuild capacity after the pandemic era slump, often redeploying fleets rapidly to meet surging demand on leisure and visiting friends and relatives routes. This has left limited slack in the system when an aircraft goes out of service or when a crew rotation is disrupted. With limited spare aircraft and crews on standby, carriers sometimes have little choice but to cancel flights outright rather than absorb longer delays that would cascade through the schedule for days.

At the same time, major hubs like Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Hong Kong have seen aircraft movements and passenger numbers rebound faster than infrastructure and staffing levels at airports, ground handling firms and air navigation providers. Even modest disruptions can quickly result in overcrowded terminals, long queues at immigration and security, and delays in baggage handling, all of which further complicate recovery from any cancellation event.

Impact on Travelers: Stranded Passengers and Broken Itineraries

For passengers, the practical consequences of the latest cancellations have been immediate and personal. Travelers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong have reported being stranded overnight at airports, unable to secure accommodation or rebookings without long waits at customer service counters. Some have faced additional out of pocket expenses for hotels, meals and alternative transport, particularly when disruptions were classified by airlines as resulting from operational rather than weather related causes.

The effect is especially pronounced on itineraries that involve multiple legs, such as trips from Europe to Bali via Kuala Lumpur or from North America to Bangkok via Hong Kong. A single cancelled sector on a route like Kuala Lumpur to Bali or Hong Kong to Taipei can sever the connection to a long haul flight, forcing complete rebooking of the journey. With peak season demand keeping many flights close to full, travelers have sometimes found themselves reprotected days later than their original departure date.

Families with young children and older travelers are among those experiencing the greatest stress, as they navigate crowded terminals and uncertain timelines. Business travelers, too, are facing the cost of missed meetings and rearranged schedules, particularly on routes connecting major commercial centers like Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok and Sydney. For the tourism sector in destinations such as Bali, Phuket and Langkawi, even short bursts of cancellations can translate into lost room nights and disrupted tour bookings.

What Airlines and Passengers Are Doing Now

In response to the current disruptions, airlines across the region are encouraging passengers to monitor flight status closely and to make use of digital tools for rebooking where possible. Carrier apps and websites are being used to issue real time updates, reassign seats on alternative flights and, in some cases, provide meal vouchers or hotel options. Some airlines have temporarily relaxed change fees or fare rules on affected routes, particularly where repeated cancellations have occurred over multiple days.

Airport authorities in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong and other hubs have also stepped up on site support, including information desks, additional seating areas and basic amenities for stranded travelers. In some cases, airports have worked with airlines and local agencies to provide water, snacks and simple comfort items for passengers facing overnight waits. Ground staff have been redeployed to manage queues and assist passengers in finding their way through reconfigured check in and security areas.

For travelers planning upcoming trips through Asia, the latest wave of cancellations serves as a timely reminder to build flexibility into itineraries. Allowing longer connection windows, purchasing travel insurance with disruption coverage, and considering alternative routings via less congested hubs can mitigate some risk. While no itinerary can be fully immune to irregular operations, informed planning and close monitoring can help passengers navigate the current period of heightened volatility in Asian air travel.