Indonesia Bird Strikes Surged 80% in 2025 — Lion Group Sounds Alarm Ahead of Packed Lebaran Travel Season

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia bird strikes reached 45 reported incidents in 2025 — an 80 percent increase from 20 the year prior — and Lion Group is now pressing airport operators and air navigation authorities to overhaul wildlife-hazard coordination before Indonesia’s busiest travel period of the year.

CEO Daniel Putut Kuncoro Adi disclosed the figures on March 6 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang. He warned that the trajectory threatens to erode the safety standards Indonesia’s aviation sector has worked to rebuild over the past two decades.

Indonesia Bird Strikes: A Trend That Didn’t Stop at One Year

The data cover more than just 2025. According to Kuncoro Adi, Lion Group’s internal records show bird-strike incidents remained at minimal levels from 2012 through 2021. That changed sharply starting in 2022, with a pronounced spike in 2023. A brief drop in 2024 — to 20 confirmed cases — turned out to be temporary: 2025 brought the steepest single-year jump in the airline’s history.

“This must be a concern for all parties because it threatens aviation safety,” Kuncoro Adi said. He added that he has raised the issue repeatedly in Aviation Sharing Sessions with operators and Indonesia’s Ministry of Transportation.

The pattern mirrors a broader regional trend. An ICAO Asia-Pacific working group paper from InJourney Airports documented a sustained increase in confirmed bird-strike reports at Indonesian airports from 2022 through 2024. The paper identified five airports with the highest risk: I Gusti Ngurah Rai (Bali), Juanda (Surabaya), Soekarno-Hatta (Jakarta), Yogyakarta International, and Zainuddin Abdul Madjid International in Lombok.

Structural Reforms on the Table

Kuncoro Adi is calling for two specific changes from industry partners ahead of Lebaran.

First, he wants PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia — now operating as InJourney Airports — to create a dedicated Safety Director position with cross-directorate authority. He argued the role is necessary for an accountable safety management system to function as required under international aviation safety regulations.

“In a safety management system, there must be an accountable safety manager whose level is high enough to provide oversight of other directorates,” he said.

Second, he is urging AirNav Indonesia air traffic controllers to relay real-time bird-activity warnings directly to flight crews. With that information, pilots could decide whether to proceed with a landing approach or divert to an alternate airport.

A Concrete Reminder: Garuda at Pekanbaru

The call for action came one day before a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-800 arrived at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru with severe damage to its radome — the nose-cone housing that protects the weather radar.

Flight GA176, operating from Soekarno-Hatta (CGK) to Pekanbaru (PKU) on March 7, landed without incident. The damage was discovered during a post-flight inspection by engineers and the flight crew. The aircraft, registered PK-GFF and roughly 15 years old, was grounded; its return service, flight GA179, was canceled and affected passengers rebooked onto a Citilink flight.

Garuda confirmed the incident and said the cause remains under investigation. Radome damage is most commonly associated with bird strikes, though hail, airborne debris, or ground-handling impact can also produce similar results. No official determination has been made.

AeroTime reported the damage was not detected in flight. That is a characteristic of radome strikes — the component sits outside pilots’ sightlines and rarely triggers cockpit alerts, even when significantly compromised.

Lebaran Stakes: 144 Million Travelers, Dozens of Extra Flights

Indonesia’s Ministry of Transportation has projected approximately 143.9 million travelers will participate in the 2026 Lebaran mudik exodus — the mass homecoming that marks Eid al-Fitr — with the official transportation management period running March 13–29. Last year’s pre-holiday forecast of 146 million was exceeded, with the final count reaching 154 million.

Air travel will absorb a significant share of that movement. Major hubs including Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali are expected to see peak-period congestion. Airlines have added frequencies; bird-strike risk typically rises with movement density and the seasonal activity patterns of migratory and resident species near airports.

Kuncoro Adi invoked Indonesia’s aviation history as a warning. In 2007, several Indonesian carriers were banned from European airspace and the country’s ICAO safety category was downgraded, dealing a reputational blow the industry spent years reversing.

“Don’t let Indonesia’s aviation safety reputation fall again as it once did,” he said.

Indonesia’s archipelago geography — spanning more than 17,000 islands — places airports near coastal wetlands, rice paddies, and both resident and migratory bird habitats. More than 50 percent of Indonesian airports have historically lacked trained wildlife monitoring personnel, according to a 2021 DGCA questionnaire reviewed by an ICAO regional working group.

Wildlife strike surges are not unique to Indonesia. A 14 percent year-over-year increase was documented at U.S. general aviation airports, and India’s DGCA investigated a dual-engine failure attributed to bird ingestion at Air India, underscoring that the hazard is industry-wide.

Whether Indonesia’s aviation safety stakeholders act on Lion Group’s proposals before peak Lebaran traffic will be visible in the weeks ahead.