Indonesia Airports Reopen, But Volcanic Ash Still Being Monitored

Indonesia reopened five airports early today, after a volcanic eruption over the weekend forced them to suspend operations for two days.

BBC reports that nearly 3,000 flights were disrupted and more than 340,000 passengers were left stranded because of the extended airport closures.

Anak Krakatau began erupting late Friday, sending volcanic ash into the capital city Jakarta and the Lampung province. It stayed seismically active throughout the weekend.

Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International airport was the first to ground flights on Sunday morning and did not to resume operations until 00:30 (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

On Monday, Indonesia’s Geological Agency warned that “the probability of further eruptions in the coming periods remains high.”

Volcanic ash reached as high as 6,000m on the Java side of the volcano and 15,000m on the Sumatra side and in some parts of Java’s westernmost province Banten, the meteorological agency BMKG said.

Anak Krakatau sits on the Sunda Strait about midway between the islands of Java and Sumatra.

“We ‌cannot ascertain when this ‌will end due to the dynamic weather,” Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said in relation to the temporary closures of the affected airports.

Dudy said on Sunday that authorities across the airports have been conducting tests every 30 minutes “to anticipate whether the ash spread is widening or subsiding.”

Anak Krakatau, which means Child of Krakatoa, has been sporadically active since it emerged from the sea at the beginning of last century in the caldera formed after the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa.

The volcano collapsed in December 2018 triggering a huge tsunami which killed over 400 people, and displaced and injured thousands more on the nearby coastlines of Sumatra and Java.