JAKARTA — Indonesia has reopened its main Jakarta airport and four other airports that had been closed due to volcanic ash from a series of eruptions at Mount Anak Krakatau, transport minister Dudy Purwagandhi said in a statement on Tuesday (Sept 8).Ash from Anak Krakatau, which sits halfway between Java and Sumatra islands, has blanketed Jakarta and some surrounding areas since its initial eruption late on Friday. That led to the closure of eight airports for safety reasons, with more than 340,000 travellers impacted.Dudy said the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta’s main airport, resumed operations on Tuesday after wind blew the ash away from its surrounding areas. Four other airports, including a smaller one in Jakarta and in the neighbouring city of Bandung, also reopened.Another airport had reopened on Monday, and two remain closed.Dudy said authorities still need to check on the airworthiness of the 178 planes that were at Soekarno-Hatta through the closure.”Perhaps it’ll take some little extra time to prepare the planes,” he said.
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