Indonesia’s haze forces flight and tour cancellations

Indonesia’s wildlife tourism operators have little room to rescue bookings when haze blocks the main attraction. Panorama Destination has lost two groups travelling to Tanjung Puting.

The transport disruption stretches across a longer period. Indonesia’s civil aviation directorate recorded 2,604 disrupted domestic flights between 11 August and 19 October, including 1,420 cancelled or postponed services. That cumulative total describes the scale of disruption over the period; individual itineraries depend on conditions at their departure and destination airports.

At Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, operator InJourney said reduced visibility at destination airports had forced two flight cancellations. It prepared terminal measures to prevent passenger congestion. Such assistance addresses the immediate airport disruption; the operator arranging the holiday still needs to find a workable itinerary.

The exposure is particularly sharp for trips built around orangutans. Ricky Setiawanto, director of Panorama Destination, said Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan was the main regional attraction, while Kalimantan formed only a small part of most packages. Travellers without a specific orangutan focus could continue to other destinations on their itineraries.

That gives a broad itinerary more room for recovery. Removing one stop may preserve the rest of a holiday. For a wildlife specialist, losing the defining experience weakens the reason to travel at all. An available hotel or replacement excursion has limited value if it fails to deliver what the customer bought.

Local operators face an immediate delivery problem. Joko Purwanto, director of Trans Borneo Adventure in East Kalimantan, said all bookings scheduled over the preceding seven days had been cancelled after flights stopped operating, many at short notice. Bookings through December remained unaffected, he said.

Substitution preserves bookings at a price

Classic Tours Lombok travel consultant Lalu Nawasier Tralala said he was redirecting groups booked for Kalimantan and Sumatra to Flores and Sulawesi, particularly travellers already in Indonesia, to avoid cancellations and refunds. He said finding an alternative was much harder for customers travelling specifically for Kalimantan’s wildlife.

Rerouting can protect revenue, but it creates a separate margin calculation. A replacement trip is commercially attractive when retained customer payments cover the revised itinerary and any stranded supplier commitments. Where deposits cannot be recovered, keeping the booking can still leave the operator paying for arrangements the traveller will never use.

The allocation of that cost depends on the contracts along the chain. Flexible accommodation and transport terms give an operator room to rebuild a trip. A customer refund obligation paired with a non-refundable supplier payment leaves the intermediary exposed. Insurance belongs in that calculation only where the policy covers the disruption and the relevant expense.

The next commercial pressure point is the gap between reopening access and restoring confidence in the holiday itself. A resumed flight restores a transport link; delivering the holiday also depends on destination access and air-quality conditions. A credible replacement itinerary makes the booking worth retaining. Operators with flexible supplier commitments have more room to offer that replacement without surrendering their margin.