Snaking queues formed at the departure lounges of Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Monday as stranded passengers demanded refunds and tried to get information about when they could fly.
Finna, who was due to fly home to Jakarta from Malang, a city in East Java, on Sunday morning, described the frenzy at the airport as flights were repeatedly rescheduled.
“It was very crowded because the passengers on the morning flights had piled up and those planning to fly later didn’t know what was going to happen yet,” the 46-year-old told the BBC Indonesian service.
“We were all glued to our flight information screens.”
Not wanting to deal with uncertainty, Finna ended up spending the night on two intercity trains and arrived in Jakarta at 03:00 on Monday.
“Everyone seems to be scratching their heads [figuring alternative transportation options]” said Jo Shaw, who visited Indonesia with members of her conservation organization Save the Rhino International.
Shaw’s team abandoned their plans to camp in Java’s Ujung Kulon National Park after authorities raised the alert level for the Anak Krakatoa volcano.
“Being stuck in an airport hotel is a relatively minor inconvenience that will hopefully be resolved within a few days,” Shaw said, adding that she was more concerned about teams working on the ground with rhinos in such environmental conditions.
Newlyweds from Malaysia who had just spent a week in Bali said they were told the next flight back to Kuala Lumpur would not be until September 11.
“What are we going to do here for another five days? We have prepared enough money just for the honeymoon and [were supposed] go home yesterday,” Amir Hamza told Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama.
“We thought we’d just sleep at the airport for a few hours and then catch a morning flight home. [on Monday]. We never thought we would be stuck here for days,” said the 29-year-old.
On Monday, Indonesia’s Geological Agency warned that “the likelihood of further eruptions in the coming periods remains high.”
Volcanic ash reached heights of 6,000 meters on the Java side of the volcano and 15,000 meters in Sumatra and parts of Java’s westernmost Banten province, according to weather agency BMKG.
Anak Krakatoa is located in the Sunda Strait, approximately halfway between the islands of Java and Sumatra.
According to the agency, the latest eruption occurred at 20:23 on Sunday.
“We cannot determine when this will end due to the dynamic weather,” Transport Minister Dudi Purvagandi said as the affected airports were temporarily closed.
Doody said Sunday that airport authorities are conducting tests every 30 minutes “to anticipate whether the spread of ash is increasing or decreasing.”