More than 110 flights have been cancelled across Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines in a fresh wave of disruption that has left thousands of travellers scrambling for alternatives at three of Southeast Asia’s busiest hubs: Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi, Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta, and Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The latest figures, drawn from airport operations data and regional aviation trackers in mid-February 2026, underscore how a mix of weather, congestion, and structural changes in airline networks is converging into a difficult month for passengers who rely on these critical gateways.
Suvarnabhumi Struggles Under Weather Pressure and Soaring Traffic
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, already operating near capacity during the Chinese New Year travel surge, has seen a spike in cancellations that aviation analysts link to severe regional weather and ripple effects from tightly packed schedules. Data from recent operational days across Asia show Thailand among the hardest hit, with dozens of flights from Suvarnabhumi scrubbed as thunderstorms and poor visibility disrupted tightly timed arrivals and departures.
The cancellations come just as airlines are pouring more capacity into the Thai market. Schedule filings for February 2026 show Chinese carriers alone have increased flights to Thailand by nearly 30 percent compared with a year earlier, with Suvarnabhumi receiving the lion’s share of added services between major Chinese cities and Bangkok. That surge has filled runways and gates at peak hours, leaving less room to absorb delays or unscheduled maintenance without tipping into full cancellations.
For travellers, the combination of heavy demand and fragile punctuality has translated into crowded terminals, long queues at rebooking counters, and higher prices for last-minute alternatives. Stranded passengers at Suvarnabhumi reported waiting several hours for assistance, particularly when their journeys involved onward connections to secondary Thai cities or other parts of Southeast Asia. With many flights running close to full, same-day rebooking has become much harder to secure.
Thailand’s airport authorities have highlighted longer-term projects to ease congestion, including capacity upgrades at Suvarnabhumi and higher departure fees planned at several major airports to support infrastructure investment. In the near term, however, the pressure on the system is being felt most acutely by passengers caught in the latest round of cancellations.
Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Faces Operational Strain and Regional Weather Systems
In Indonesia, Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport has again emerged as a flashpoint for flight disruptions. Recent regional tallies of cancellations and delays across Asia show Indonesia consistently among the most affected countries, with Jakarta accounting for a significant share of flights that never leave the tarmac. While no single catastrophic incident has been reported in February, a series of smaller operational issues have added up to a difficult environment for on-time performance.
Monsoon-season storms rolling across the Indonesian archipelago have periodically reduced visibility and forced temporary ground stops at Soekarno Hatta, which handles the bulk of the country’s international and domestic traffic. Airlines such as Garuda Indonesia and Batik Air have been compelled to trim schedules or cancel individual sectors when aircraft and crews are displaced by weather in other parts of the country, including secondary hubs that feed into Jakarta.
These challenges are amplified by Jakarta’s role as a transit point for passengers connecting between Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. When departures from Jakarta are cancelled outright, travellers often find that alternative routings are complicated by full cabins on neighboring hubs like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which have also recorded heightened delays and cancellations in recent days. The result is a domino effect of missed connections stretching far beyond Indonesia’s borders.
Airport officials in Jakarta have stressed that systems remain fundamentally stable, with power, navigation, and runway operations functioning normally. However, they acknowledge that tight turnarounds, constrained slot availability, and volatile weather patterns are leaving airlines with little room for error. For passengers, this combination has made February one of the more unpredictable months for travel through Soekarno Hatta in recent memory.
Manila’s Ninoy Aquino Balances Cancellations With Structural Network Changes
In Manila, Ninoy Aquino International Airport has been grappling with both immediate cancellations and looming structural changes that are reshaping how airlines use the Philippine capital. Operational statistics for January 2026 show more than 150 flights cancelled at Manila, a substantial year-on-year increase, with airport authorities attributing much of the disruption to adverse weather and technical issues. Those cancellations have spilled into February as airlines continue to fine-tune schedules at one of Southeast Asia’s most congested gateways.
At the same time, passengers are facing profound changes to the domestic network that flows through Manila. The government’s long-planned effort to shift turboprop operations out of Ninoy Aquino to secondary airports, particularly Clark International Airport in Pampanga, is moving forward toward a March 2026 deadline. Philippine Airlines has confirmed that all of its turboprop services to and from Manila will cease from March 29, with many routes rerouted through Clark, Cebu, or Iloilo instead.
Low-cost affiliates and boutique carriers are following suit, as operators such as Cebgo and AirSWIFT prepare to move flights north to Clark around the same timeframe. While official messaging emphasizes improved passenger experience and reduced congestion at Manila, the transition introduces fresh complexity for travellers whose journeys have traditionally begun or ended at Ninoy Aquino. Some passengers on island routes now face split itineraries, departing from Manila but returning to a different airport altogether once the changes take full effect.
In the short term, passengers caught in the latest cancellations at Manila have found it challenging to navigate these overlapping disruptions. Rebooking options often involve airports that will soon change or are already operating near their own capacity limits. Local officials insist that the turboprop shift will help reduce cancellations in the long run by freeing up valuable jet slots at Ninoy Aquino, but for now, many travellers feel they are bearing the cost of transition without yet seeing its promised benefits.
Across Southeast Asia, Cancellations Add Up to More Than 110 Flights Lost
Viewed together, the disruptions at Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila point to a regional pattern that has intensified in early 2026. Recent reports from aviation monitoring services detail several waves of cancellations across Asia, with Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines repeatedly appearing among the hardest-hit markets. In separate operational snapshots, regional airports collectively logged more than 400 cancellations on single days, with triple-digit totals concentrated in key hubs like Bangkok and Jakarta and further clusters impacting Manila and other Philippine airports.
Within that broader picture, the tally of more than 110 flights cancelled across these three countries over a short window may sound modest in raw numbers but carries outsized consequences because many of the affected flights are critical connectors. Routes linking provincial cities to national capitals, or serving as the first international leg for overseas workers and holidaymakers, often operate with limited daily frequencies. When one of these flights is cancelled, travellers may have to wait until the next day or re-route through a different city altogether.
Moreover, cancellations rarely occur in isolation. Each scrapped departure can disrupt an aircraft’s subsequent rotations, affecting flights hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. This cascading effect has been evident in recent days as cancellations at Suvarnabhumi and Soekarno Hatta have coincided with spikes in delays at neighboring hubs, while Manila’s own cancellations have contributed to knock-on effects in Cebu, Clark, and other domestic airports.
Industry analysts warn that with travel demand climbing back above pre-pandemic levels in many Asian markets, the system’s margin for absorbing these shocks is thinning. The latest disruptions are a reminder that even without a single headline-grabbing incident, the cumulative impact of scattered cancellations can quickly mount into a significant regional event for travellers.
Airlines and Airports Race to Contain the Fallout for Passengers
In response to the wave of cancellations, airlines operating through Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila have rolled out a familiar set of mitigation measures: flexible rebooking, fee waivers, and, in some cases, hotel vouchers or meal allowances for stranded travellers. National carriers such as Thai Airways, Garuda Indonesia, and Philippine Airlines have issued advisories urging passengers to monitor flight status closely and arrive at airports earlier than usual, especially during peak hours and on routes prone to weather-related disruption.
Airports themselves are adjusting operations to better manage the passenger surge created by sudden cancellations. At Suvarnabhumi, ground handling teams have been redeployed to support rebooking counters and help direct travellers to airline service desks. Soekarno Hatta authorities have coordinated with carriers to prioritize certain routes for recovery flights, particularly high-demand domestic spokes that connect remote regions to Jakarta. In Manila, airport management is balancing day-to-day disruption control with preparations for the upcoming turboprop transfer, which will alter flows of both passengers and aircraft.
Despite these efforts, travellers report uneven experiences. While some have been swiftly moved onto alternative flights or rerouted through neighboring hubs, others describe long waits, limited communication, and confusion over compensation entitlements. Language barriers and differing rules among carriers add to the complexity, especially for passengers on multi-airline itineraries or separate tickets that are not formally linked in reservation systems.
Consumer advocates argue that the latest cancellations highlight the need for clearer regional standards on passenger rights. Unlike in some long-haul markets where compensation frameworks are tightly regulated, Southeast Asia’s patchwork of national rules often leaves travellers uncertain about what they can reasonably expect when their flights are cancelled at short notice.
Changing Networks and Capacity Shifts Complicate Recovery
Behind the immediate disruption, strategic shifts in airline and airport planning are shaping how resilient these hubs can be when problems arise. In Thailand, the rapid jump in flight volumes from Chinese carriers into Suvarnabhumi reflects strong demand but also creates heavy dependence on a few peak travel windows tied to holiday seasons. When weather or air traffic control constraints collide with these peaks, the system struggles to recover quickly because so many flights are bunched together in narrow time bands.
In the Philippines, the decision to move turboprop traffic out of Manila is intended to free up capacity for jet operations and reduce chronic congestion at Ninoy Aquino. Philippine Airlines is simultaneously adding jet frequencies on several domestic routes from Manila, betting that larger aircraft and improved slot utilization will bolster reliability over time. However, this transition phase introduces friction as airlines realign fleets, retrain staff, and adjust maintenance schedules to new operating patterns.
Indonesia faces its own structural balancing act. Soekarno Hatta remains the dominant hub for the archipelago, yet many of the routes feeding it rely on smaller airports and infrastructure that are more vulnerable to weather and technical interruptions. Efforts to develop alternative gateways and improve regional airport facilities are progressing, but in the interim, any disruption at these feeder points can quickly reverberate back to Jakarta and affect international passengers.
The combination of rising demand, evolving route maps, and finite runway and gate capacity at the region’s biggest hubs suggests that travellers should expect periodic turbulence in the months ahead, even in the absence of major crises. The latest wave of more than 110 cancellations is, in that sense, both a symptom of immediate pressures and a preview of the operational challenges that come with rapid regional growth.
What Travellers Are Experiencing on the Ground
For many passengers, the story of these cancellations is less about statistics and more about personal disruption. At Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi, travellers caught in the most recent wave of cancellations have described snaking queues at check-in halls and transfer counters, with families sitting on the floor near charging stations as they wait for news of replacement flights. Some have resorted to booking separate tickets on low-cost carriers departing from the city’s secondary Don Mueang airport, paying out of pocket in the hope of salvaging holidays or business trips.
In Jakarta, passengers on domestic routes connecting through Soekarno Hatta have reported being rebooked via alternative cities or asked to accept overnight stays before an onward seat becomes available. Those with tight connections to long-haul flights face especially high stakes, as a single cancelled sector can mean missed departures to Europe or the Middle East with limited same-day recovery options.
Manila’s travellers, meanwhile, are contending not only with cancellations but with shifting airport plans that complicate future bookings. Some passengers heading to island destinations have discovered that their return flights later this year will arrive in Clark rather than Ninoy Aquino, raising new questions about ground transport and connection times. For overseas Filipino workers and holidaymakers planning one or two big trips a year, these changes can be daunting, particularly when layered on top of last-minute operational disruptions.
Across all three hubs, a common thread emerges: even well-prepared travellers, who arrive early and monitor their flights, can find themselves with little control once cascading cancellations begin. The experience has reinforced the value of flexible tickets, comprehensive travel insurance, and itineraries that allow extra time between key connections, especially during busy holiday periods or monsoon seasons.
Outlook for the Coming Weeks
With February 2026 still in full swing, airlines and airports across Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines are bracing for further volatility, particularly if severe weather persists or if additional capacity shifts strain already busy hubs. Suvarnabhumi’s expanded traffic from China will remain a stress test for Bangkok’s air traffic system through the remainder of the month, while Jakarta’s exposure to regional storms continues to pose a day-to-day challenge for planners.
In Manila, attention is increasingly focused on the March turboprop deadline and how smoothly the large-scale transfer of flights to Clark and other hubs can be executed. Successful implementation could eventually ease some of the congestion that contributes to cancellations at Ninoy Aquino, but missteps during the transition could temporarily increase disruption for passengers navigating the change.
For now, the message to travellers is one of vigilance and flexibility. As recent days have shown, more than 110 cancelled flights spread across a trio of major hubs can reshape travel plans for far more than 110 planeloads of passengers once missed connections and aircraft rotations are factored in. Southeast Asia’s aviation recovery remains robust, yet the latest turmoil at Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila underlines how fragile that recovery can appear from the departure gate when the screens suddenly flash “cancelled.”