Indonesia keeps eye on its volcanoes to save tourism industry

Indonesia is taking steps to curb disruptions to air travel after volcanic eruptions near tourist destinations.

Mount Sinabung, in North Sumatra, erupted for the first time in 400 years on August 29.

Indonesia is taking steps to curb disruptions to air travel after a ­series of volcanic eruptions near popular tourist destinations sparked havoc in this fast-growing air travel market.

Volcanic eruptions in 2015 shut airports in parts of Indonesia’s vast archipelago, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, forcing the postponement of an international family planning conference and costing local industry tens of millions of dollars.

The events jolted a country that sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, with among the world’s highest number of active volcanoes, 139, and its most life-threatening ones due to their numbers, power and proximity to people. These factors make Indonesia highly prone to air travel disturbances. But with limited monitoring resources, the country has long prioritised protecting people over planes.

Now, Indonesia is taking a leading role on volcano monitoring as data becomes more prevalent and accessible. It is tapping into next-generation satellite technology that provides more frequent, high-resolution images, offering a more precise measurement of the size and danger of ash clouds that make advisories more accurate. And it is mixing the new technology with better co-ordination and planning.

“Based on all the information we have, we have more alertness and awareness,” said Yusfandri Gona, the former head of Bali’s airport authority. “This is much more beneficial for everyone.”

Asia is now the world’s largest market by passengers, representing nearly a third of the global total, according to the International Air Transport Association. More than half of all new passengers in the next 20 years will fly routes in the region. Indonesia would become the fifth-largest aviation market in that period, from ninth today, as passenger volumes grow 80 per cent to 242 million, the trade group says.

But some fear the country isn’t equipped to handle this surge in air travel due to past short­comings in communication, pilot training and punctuality.

Indonesian airlines were banned from flying to the US in 2007 after a series of crashes and concerns about safety oversight. It gained back that right last year after the US upgraded its safety rating to Category 1. But the threat posed by Indonesia’s volcanoes is acute and complicated by the nation’s geography. Indonesia’s 250 million people are spread across islands spanning more than 5000km, making air travel vital. Bali, a globally renowned destination, connects planes to 15 other airports in Indonesia and to 30 overseas. Indonesia is also building new airports as it tries to boost tourism.

Indonesia’s government agencies, like others around the region, use free data from Japan’s Himawari 8 satellite for weather monitoring and forecasting. The geostationary satellite provides a giant leap in the tracking and forecasting of weather imagery. It provides data on ash cloud properties, such as their location, height and density. It can also detect sulphur dioxide, a common volcanic gas, that helps better spot the location of ash.

Several more such satellites will be rolled out in the Asia-­Pacific region in the coming years.

Michael Pavolonis, a satellite meteorology expert at the US ­National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Wisconsin, said the current images were so detailed they could pick up clouds just starting to emerge from a volcanic vent, giving the aviation community more time to respond. Experts say it takes only a few minutes for an eruption to inject ash to plane cruising altitudes, so improving the timeliness of ash advisories is vital.

“It doesn’t take a big, explosive event to cause a disruption,” Mr Pavolonis said. “A low-level persistent event near an airport can cause a major headache.”

Indonesia has advanced its volcanic monitoring capabilities and began sharing more information about eruptions with ­pilots and air traffic controllers in 2015. That resulted in nearly 2100 alerts to aviation professionals in 2015, from less than 300 a year earlier, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Transportation.

Relying on such a co-ordinated response, the Bali airport remained open and Indonesian airlines decided not to cancel flights in September despite a small eruption of Mount Rinjani east of Bali.