Indonesia has reopened Jakarta's main airport and four others after volcanic ash from Mount Anak Krakatau forced widespread flight cancellations, though fresh eruptions have kept authorities on alert.
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport resumed operations on Tuesday after changing winds cleared ash from the area, Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said.
The airport was among eight forced to close after Anak Krakatau erupted late on Friday, sending ash across Jakarta and surrounding areas and disrupting travel for more than 340,000 passengers.
Authorities are now inspecting 178 aircraft that were grounded at Soekarno-Hatta during the closure.
“Perhaps it'll take some little extra time to prepare the planes,” Purwagandhi said.
Nearly 2,961 flights were delayed, diverted or cancelled across the affected airports, according to Chief Infrastructure Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono.
Four additional airports, including another in Jakarta and one in the nearby city of Bandung, also reopened on Tuesday, 8 September. One airport had resumed operations a day earlier, while two remained closed.
For some travellers, however, the disruption is far from over.
Alvin Pratama Putra, 31, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta on Sunday for a work trip to South Korea but was forced to wait after his flight was cancelled. He said his departure had been moved to Thursday.
“What can you do? It's nature. It's dangerous for the plane if you force it,” he said after spending days sleeping on a bench at the airport.
Anak Krakatau erupted three more times on Tuesday morning, according to Indonesia's volcano monitoring agency.
While the latest eruptions were smaller than those seen in recent days, officials warned that further flight disruption remained possible depending on the height of the ash and the direction of the wind.
“So far, the impact is not as big as the previous eruptions, but we'll continue to monitor,” said Lana Saria, head of the geological agency.
Indonesia is home to around 130 active volcanoes and sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world's most seismically active regions.
Anak Krakatau, meaning “Child of Krakatau”, emerged roughly a century ago from the site of the former Krakatau volcano. Its predecessor was destroyed in the catastrophic 1883 eruption, which triggered devastating tsunamis and killed more than 36,000 people.
For now, flights have resumed across much of the affected region, but with the volcano still active, Indonesian authorities are watching closely for the next change in conditions.
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