Travelers flying in and out of Indonesia are facing fresh disruption as a wave of flight cancellations and delays sweeps across the country’s busiest airports, leaving passengers stranded at Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar and compounding a broader pattern of regional travel chaos. Operational bottlenecks, unsettled weather, and knock-on effects from recent seismic activity in Java have converged to strain airline and airport capacity just as demand for domestic and regional travel remains strong.
New Disruptions Hit Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar
Indonesia’s main international gateway, Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport, has been the focal point of the latest upheaval. On February 2, 2026, the hub recorded hundreds of delayed departures and more than a dozen cancellations in a single day, affecting both domestic and international services. Airlines including Batik Air, Lion Air, Garuda Indonesia, Super Air Jet, Citilink, Indonesia AirAsia, Sriwijaya Air, and TransNusa all reported disrupted schedules, with ripple effects extending to key domestic destinations such as Bali’s Ngurah Rai, Surabaya’s Juanda, and Makassar’s Sultan Hasanuddin airports.
While Jakarta has drawn the most attention, secondary hubs have not been spared. Surabaya and Makassar, both critical transit points for travel across Java, Sulawesi, and eastern Indonesia, have seen mounting irregular operations. At Juanda in Surabaya, airlines have struggled to realign their rotations following delays out of Jakarta and other upstream airports. In Makassar, Sultan Hasanuddin has faced weather-related constraints and operational knock-ons from earlier disruptions, resulting in aircraft and crew imbalances that have tightened capacity on already busy domestic routes.
These disruptions are unfolding against the backdrop of the Pacitan earthquake that struck off East Java on February 6, 2026. While airports remained structurally intact and runways operational, carriers introduced additional safety checks and occasional route adjustments in the days that followed. Combined with the seasonal pattern of heavy rain, poor visibility, and thunderstorms in parts of Indonesia, the result has been a fragile operating environment where even minor issues can escalate into widespread schedule disruption.
How the Chaos Is Playing Out for Passengers
For travelers, the numbers on departure boards translate into long queues, missed connections, and nights spent on terminal benches. At Soekarno Hatta, passengers have reported waiting hours for information as airlines juggle delayed aircraft and reshuffle rosters, with some flights pushed late into the night and others cancelled outright when duty-time limits for crews are reached. Similar scenes have played out at Surabaya and Makassar, where facilities are often stretched when large volumes of travelers are forced to remain airside longer than planned.
Typical itineraries that once involved a short hop from a regional city into Jakarta or Surabaya and onward to Bali, eastern Indonesia, or international destinations are suddenly far less predictable. Families heading for holiday breaks have faced last-minute gate changes and rebookings. Business travelers have been forced to abandon day trips that are no longer feasible once early-morning flights slip by several hours. In some cases, travelers report arriving at their final destinations without their checked bags, as baggage handling struggles to keep pace with irregular operations.
At Makassar’s Sultan Hasanuddin airport, even a relatively small cluster of diversions or delayed arrivals can have outsized impacts, given its role as a connecting hub between eastern Indonesia and major cities on Java and Sumatra. Past episodes of bad weather at Makassar have already shown how quickly conditions can deteriorate: low visibility, strong winds, and thunderstorms can force aircraft to divert, triggering a cascade of delays on onward segments to Jakarta, Surabaya, and beyond. The current wave of disruption has revived those vulnerabilities, leaving many passengers stranded mid-journey.
Why This Is Happening Now
The present turmoil does not stem from a single cause. Instead, a combination of operational strains, seasonal weather, and external shocks has converged in early February 2026 to stress-test Indonesia’s aviation network. The recent Pacitan earthquake in East Java, although moderate in scale, prompted precautionary checks and heightened monitoring across parts of Java’s infrastructure. These measures, when layered onto already tight turnarounds and ambitious schedules, have reduced the system’s flexibility at precisely the moment when demand is strong.
Weather remains a persistent complicating factor. February falls within a period when heavy rain, thunderstorms, and low cloud can quickly degrade visibility around major airports, particularly in Java and Sulawesi. In previous years, Makassar’s Sultan Hasanuddin has seen flights delayed or diverted due to storm systems that slashed visibility to a few hundred meters and generated wind gusts well above normal operational thresholds. Similar conditions this season have constrained air traffic controllers’ capacity to safely manage arrivals and departures, forcing spacing between aircraft and causing stacked delays during peak periods.
Beyond Indonesia, wider regional turbulence has added another layer of complexity. Across Asia, from Japan and China to Thailand and Indonesia, airports have recently recorded a spike in delays and cancellations linked to weather systems, air traffic control constraints, and staffing challenges. Jakarta has featured prominently in these statistics, with other major hubs such as Shanghai, Narita, and Phuket also reporting elevated disruption levels in mid-February. When connecting flights through these international gateways are delayed or cancelled, aircraft and crews can arrive late into Indonesian airports, limiting the ability of carriers to operate as planned.
Airlines and Airports Under Pressure
For Indonesian airlines, this period highlights just how thin their operational margins can be. Carriers such as Batik Air, Lion Air, Garuda Indonesia, Citilink, Super Air Jet, and Indonesia AirAsia have built networks around intense aircraft utilization, with short ground times and dense wave banks at major hubs. When flights out of Jakarta or other key airports are delayed by weather, congestion, or technical checks, the impact is felt throughout the day as aircraft and crews miss their next rotations. Recovering from such a disruption often requires cutting flights or consolidating services, which in turn strands passengers.
Airports are also navigating significant constraints. Soekarno Hatta, already one of the busiest airports in Southeast Asia, has been gradually upgrading facilities and air traffic management systems, yet peak-hour congestion remains common. High aircraft movements in a confined airspace, combined with weather-induced reductions in runway capacity, leave little room for error. Similar patterns are visible at Surabaya’s Juanda, which plays a crucial role as a secondary hub in East Java, and at Makassar’s Sultan Hasanuddin, where infrastructure has had to keep pace with brisk growth in eastern Indonesia’s air travel demand.
While safety remains non-negotiable, operational decision-making can be difficult for airlines in this environment. Extending delays to preserve connections and move more passengers with fewer cancellations must be balanced against crew duty regulations and aircraft maintenance windows. Where these limits are reached, carriers have little choice but to cancel flights, even when passenger loads are high. For travelers, this can give the impression of sudden, unexplained cancellations, when in fact they are the end point of a chain of operational constraints that began hours or even days earlier.
What Travelers Need to Know and Do
For anyone scheduled to fly through Jakarta, Surabaya, or Makassar over the coming days, the most important step is to assume that schedules are fluid and to build in additional time and flexibility. That means monitoring flight status directly with the airline from at least 24 hours before departure, using official apps, text alerts, or customer-service channels. Travelers starting their journey at regional airports should pay particular attention to morning departures that connect through Jakarta or Surabaya, as delays in the first legs of the day can quickly cascade into missed onward flights.
Passengers already ticketed on affected flights should be prepared to consider alternative routings, including rebooking via other Indonesian hubs such as Bali’s Ngurah Rai, Medan’s Kuala Namu, or Balikpapan, if airlines make those options available. Many carriers will offer free date or time changes during periods of significant disruption, although seats on peak-day services may still be limited. Travelers with critical arrival times, such as business meetings or connecting long-haul flights, may wish to bring travel forward by a day where possible to reduce the risk that a last-minute cancellation derails their plans entirely.
At the airport, having a contingency plan can ease some of the stress if things go wrong. That includes carrying essential medications and chargers in hand luggage, keeping digital copies of tickets and identification readily accessible, and budgeting for the possibility of an overnight stay if rebooking is not possible until the following day. Families and older travelers in particular should consider booking flights that arrive in daylight hours, when airport services are fully staffed and ground transport to the city is more easily arranged, rather than relying on tight late-night connections during a period of elevated disruption.
Passenger Rights, Compensation, and Support
One of the most challenging aspects for travelers navigating the current chaos is understanding what assistance they can reasonably expect from airlines. Unlike in some other regions, Indonesia does not operate under a unified, EU-style compensation scheme that guarantees fixed payouts for delays and cancellations. Instead, passenger entitlements are governed by a mix of national regulations, airline policies, and the specific cause of the disruption. Weather-related delays, air traffic control restrictions, or safety-driven decisions typically fall into the category of events beyond the carrier’s control, limiting the scope for financial compensation.
That said, airlines operating from Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar often provide certain forms of care and assistance, depending on the circumstances. This can include meal vouchers during prolonged delays, hotel accommodation and ground transport when overnight stays become unavoidable, and priority rebooking on the next available flight on the same route. Passengers are generally required to work through official channels at airport service desks or call centers to access these options, which can be time-consuming when large numbers of travelers are affected simultaneously.
Travel insurance can fill some of the gaps, particularly for nonrefundable hotels, tours, and tickets that go unused when flights are cancelled or severely delayed. Policies vary widely, but many offer coverage for extended delays, missed connections, or trip interruption when carriers are unable to operate as scheduled. Travelers are advised to retain boarding passes, booking confirmations, and any written proof of delay or cancellation from the airline, as insurers typically require documentation to process claims. Those with corporate travel arrangements should also check whether their employer’s travel management company offers additional support or emergency rebooking services.
Looking Ahead: Will Conditions Improve Soon
The immediate outlook suggests that while the worst spikes in cancellations and delays may ease as weather patterns stabilize and airlines complete post-earthquake checks, Indonesia’s aviation system is likely to remain fragile for some time. The combination of high travel demand, dense schedules, and infrastructure working close to capacity at Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar means that even modest disruptions can have outsized effects. With the broader Asian region also grappling with operational pressures from Japan to China, Indonesia’s carriers and airports have limited external slack to draw on when things go wrong.
Industry observers expect airlines to make tactical adjustments over the coming weeks, such as increasing buffer times between key rotations, temporarily trimming frequencies on lower-demand routes to free up spare aircraft, and rebalancing capacity between Jakarta and secondary hubs. Airports, for their part, are likely to refine slot coordination during peak hours, work with air navigation providers to optimize traffic flows in congested airspace, and expand communication efforts to keep passengers better informed when delays mount.
For travelers, that means the best strategy is a pragmatic one: assume that volatility will continue in the near term, particularly at Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar; plan extra time into itineraries; and stay closely engaged with airlines for the latest operational updates. While Indonesia’s aviation sector has repeatedly shown its ability to bounce back from shocks, the current wave of disruptions is a reminder that in a system running near full capacity, resilience depends as much on informed traveler decisions as it does on airlines and airports behind the scenes.