Thousands of air passengers across Asia are facing long queues, missed connections, and overnight airport stays as a fresh wave of disruption ripples through major hubs in Thailand, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and beyond. As of February 15 and 16, 2026, regional data shows 3,361 flights delayed and 55 cancelled across 15 of Asia’s busiest airports, with operations at carriers including AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, Air China, and others severely affected in cities such as Bangkok, Beijing, Jakarta, Chennai, Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, Singapore, and Taipei.
Wide Regional Disruption Centers on Southeast and East Asian Hubs
The latest figures, compiled over the past 24 hours, highlight just how concentrated the disruption has become in a handful of key hubs that serve as gateways for both regional and long-haul traffic. Kuala Lumpur International Airport emerged as the single most affected airport by volume of delays, recording 667 delayed flights and no cancellations. Much of that congestion was driven by short and medium haul traffic across Southeast Asia, with knock-on effects rippling into connecting banks of flights.
Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport, one of the busiest in the region, reported 407 delays and 11 cancellations, making it the worst-affected airport in terms of outright flight cuts. Singapore Changi, consistently ranked among the world’s top-performing hubs, still logged 346 delays, underscoring the scale of the strain currently hitting airline and airport systems in the region.
In South Asia, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport recorded 315 delays and two cancellations, while Chennai International Airport reported 62 delays and three cancellations. In Thailand, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport saw 280 flights delayed, as congestion in Southeast Asia’s core tourism and transfer corridors intensified.
Collectively, these hubs form a dense network of overlapping routes linking Southeast Asia, India, China, the Middle East, and Australia, which means disruptions in any one of them rapidly propagate along onward sectors. Airlines have been forced to re-time departures, reassign aircraft, and adjust crew rotations, feeding further complexity into an already strained operational environment.
Chinese Mainland Airports Add To Operational Strain
Several major airports in mainland China have simultaneously reported significant disruption, amplifying the pressure on Asia’s aviation system. Beijing Capital International Airport recorded 214 delays and three cancellations, reflecting both domestic congestion and long-haul scheduling difficulties. Secondary but strategically important hubs, such as Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport with 211 delays and three cancellations, and Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport with 185 delays and seven cancellations, also reported heavy operational stress.
Additional Chinese gateways including Changsha Huanghua, Wuhan Tianhe, Shanghai Hongqiao, and Fuzhou Changle each posted well over 100 delayed flights, alongside a smaller number of cancellations. These disruptions are particularly impactful because many of these airports serve as domestic connectors feeding major coastal hubs, creating bottlenecks further down the line as aircraft and crews struggle to stay within regulated duty times.
With China’s domestic market representing one of the world’s largest pools of intra-country air traffic, even relatively modest levels of disruption at multiple airports can quickly snowball. Passengers traveling between provincial centers and international gateways are especially vulnerable, as delays on domestic legs can lead to missed connections on outbound long-haul services or force last-minute rebooking and rerouting.
The concurrent disruption in both Southeast Asian and Chinese airports is effectively eliminating the flexibility airlines normally rely on to recover from localized issues. Instead of moving spare aircraft or crews between regions to stabilize schedules, carriers are juggling shortages and late inbound rotations on multiple fronts at once.
Low Cost and Full Service Carriers Both Hit Hard
The current wave of delays and cancellations has not spared any particular business model. Data from affected airports shows low cost giant AirAsia at the top of the disruption tally, with 327 delayed flights across Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Chennai, and Indonesia-linked routes. At Kuala Lumpur alone, AirAsia accounted for 293 delayed flights, forming the largest single airline delay cluster anywhere in the region during this period.
Malaysia Airlines, which operates an extensive network of regional and long haul services through its Kuala Lumpur hub, recorded 156 delayed flights. In Indonesia, Batik Air posted 135 delays and 17 cancellations, among the highest cancellation totals for any single carrier in this latest disruption round. Lion Air also reported 142 delayed flights, reflecting the strain on Indonesia’s dense domestic network.
In China, Air China registered 195 delays and five cancellations across several hubs including Beijing, Chongqing, and Wuhan. China Eastern’s network has also been under pressure in recent days, compounding longer running operational challenges. In India, major carriers IndiGo and Air India together logged hundreds of delays and several cancellations on both domestic and international sectors.
Full service brands such as Singapore Airlines have not been immune, with nearly 100 delays recorded, particularly on high-frequency routes within Southeast Asia and to India and China. The combined impact on both low cost and full service segments highlights how underlying causes are systemic, rather than confined to a specific type of operation or fare class.
Passengers Confront Long Queues, Missed Connections, And Overnight Stays
For travelers on the ground, the statistics translate into frayed tempers, missed holidays, and disrupted business plans. At Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, passengers have reported lengthy check in and security queues as airlines attempt to process rebookings and issue meal or hotel vouchers. With aircraft and crews out of position, even short delays can turn into multi hour waits as new departure slots are negotiated and operational approvals obtained.
In Bangkok and Singapore, travelers connecting from regional flights onto long haul services to Europe, the Middle East, and North America have faced missed connections and last minute reroutings. Some have been forced into overnight stays and next day departures where onward capacity is limited or where curfews and crew duty limits prevent late night recovery operations.
At Beijing and Shanghai, domestic passengers trying to reach smaller cities have encountered cascading knock on effects where earlier disruptions in the day eliminated spare capacity in the evening, pushing rebooked passengers into flights departing on February 16 and beyond. For families traveling during school holidays and business travelers with fixed meeting schedules, such delays can have outsized financial and personal consequences.
Airports have ramped up customer service teams and information desk staffing, but the sheer number of affected passengers in multiple terminals at once has made it difficult to provide real time updates. In many cases, departure times have been adjusted multiple times over the course of a single delay, and boarding gate changes have become frequent as operators reshuffle stand assignments to free space for late running arrivals.
Complex Mix of Operational and Seasonal Pressures
While airport and airline operators have not attributed the disruption to a single identifiable incident, industry analysts point to a complex mixture of factors typical of peak travel periods in Asia. Seasonal demand surges around regional holidays can compress schedules and reduce operational slack, leaving carriers with less room to absorb even routine issues such as weather related slowdowns or air traffic control restrictions.
In parts of China and Northeast Asia, winter conditions can lead to deicing delays, low visibility procedures, and temporary capacity reductions on runways and taxiways. When these occur at heavily banked times of the day, such as early morning and late evening waves, delays can quickly propagate across the schedule. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, isolated storms and heavy rain can periodically halt ground handling and arrivals, especially where lightning activity forces ramp closures.
Airlines in the region are also managing tighter crew and aircraft utilization as they work to rebuild capacity following the pandemic era. Schedules optimized for efficiency, while beneficial in normal conditions, can leave little buffer when multiple airports encounter disruption simultaneously. A late arriving aircraft in Jakarta may be scheduled to operate a follow on flight from Singapore or Bangkok, meaning the impact of a delay can span several countries.
Analysts also highlight ongoing maintenance and supply chain constraints affecting the availability of spare aircraft parts, as well as continued training pipelines for new cabin crew and pilots. These structural factors limit operators’ ability to quickly add backup capacity when regular schedules unravel, and contribute to the longer recovery timelines seen in recent months when large scale disruptions occur.
Knock-On Effects for International Connectivity
Because many of the hardest hit airports serve as regional transfer nodes, the current disruption extends well beyond Asia. Flights linking Southeast Asia and China to Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and North America rely heavily on punctual feeder services from smaller cities across the region. When those feeders arrive late or are cancelled, airlines must decide whether to hold onward departures, protect long haul schedules, or rebook affected travelers via alternative hubs.
In Singapore and Bangkok, where numerous long haul departures are scheduled in late evening banks, airlines have tried to protect departure times for intercontinental flights to avoid rolling delays into the following day. That strategy, however, has left some connecting passengers behind, requiring re-accommodation via indirect routings or on flights departing 24 hours later.
In Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, the disruption has particularly affected travelers heading to secondary international destinations served only a few times per week. For these passengers, a missed or cancelled flight can mean days of delay rather than hours, as seats on alternative routes are often scarce. This is especially true for leisure routes to coastal and island destinations where hotel and tour bookings are tightly aligned with flight schedules.
Mainland Chinese hubs facing simultaneous delays have also created complications for onward traffic to Europe and North America via Beijing and Shanghai. Airlines have attempted to consolidate passengers from multiple delayed feeders into fewer long haul departures, but such consolidation is limited by seat availability and crew working hour regulations.
Airlines Urge Early Airport Arrival And Digital Self Service
With disruption expected to take time to unwind, airlines and airports across the region are urging passengers to allow additional time for check in, security, and immigration procedures, and to make full use of digital tools. Carriers such as AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Air China, and Batik Air have pushed notifications through their apps and SMS channels encouraging travelers to check real time flight status before heading to the airport.
Passengers with connecting itineraries are being advised to monitor minimum connection times closely and, where possible, to proactively rebook onto more robust routings rather than waiting until they arrive at an intermediate hub. Many carriers have temporarily relaxed change fees and fare rules for flights operating through the most affected airports, although availability in key cabins remains tight on popular routes.
At the airport level, several hubs have opened additional counters dedicated to disruption handling, including dedicated lines for missed connections, ticket changes, and hotel and meal voucher distribution. Self service kiosks have been configured to handle more complex rebooking scenarios, particularly for point to point carriers with large local passenger bases.
Even with these measures, travelers are being warned to prepare for extended waiting times and to plan for contingencies, such as flexible accommodation reservations and travel insurance coverage that includes delay and cancellation benefits. For many, the current conditions serve as a reminder that Asia’s rapid aviation recovery, while welcome, is still operating with limited margins for error when multiple stressors hit the system at once.