Verified 14 October 2026
Latest verified update
Smoke from land and forest fires was still over Sorong on 14 October, and two days of rain had not cleared it. Flights into Sorong were diverted several times between 4 and 8 October and schedules were moved. In the reporting reviewed here, no general closure of Raja Ampat and no suspension of the Sorong to Waisai ferry was announced. That is not a statement that either is running normally. Confirm your own flight and boat on the day you travel.
Last verified 14 October 2026, against Indonesian reporting published between 30 September and 14 October.
If you have a flight booked through Sorong, this is the page I would want to read. Not the headline, not the hectare count, but the part that decides whether your trip works: what is actually happening on the ground, which parts of it touch a traveller, and what you can confirm yourself before you fly.
I was in Raja Ampat in September 2025, not this month. Everything below about the current situation comes from Indonesian reporting, local agencies and a field report by EcoNusa, all linked at the bottom. Where something has not been verified, I say so instead of filling the gap.
No. Nothing in the reporting I have been through announces a closure of the archipelago, and the Sorong to Waisai ferry is running, with no suspension announced. What the authorities have said still matters. On 21 September the Sorong port authority said shipping in local waters remained safe with tightened monitoring, which is old enough now to need rechecking. On 13 October the Sorong police marine unit asked skippers and crews not to ignore conditions, and to consider postponing a crossing if the water was judged unsafe. On 14 October the Sorong search and rescue office repeated a warning to fishermen and sea users about visibility.
That is the honest shape of it: no closure, real disruption, and conditions that change week to week. We wrote separately about Wayag being closed to visitors, which is what it looks like when a closure is actually announced.
Getting to Raja Ampat is a chain, and every link has to hold on the same day. An international flight, then a domestic flight to Sorong, then the public ferry to Waisai, then a small boat your homestay sends for you. The ferry does not wait. The boat does not wait either, and on most islands it is the only one.
That is why haze matters more than the fires themselves. Normal morning visibility at Sorong airport is above 5 kilometres. Between 4 and 8 October, flights into Sorong were diverted. A Garuda service from Jakarta went to Ambon on 5 October. AirNav confirmed two more diversions to Manokwari and Biak on 8 October, with departure delays. Visibility at Domine Eduard Osok airport was reported at around 1,000 metres on 7 October, and about 1,500 metres on the morning of 8 October. Garuda moved its Jakarta to Sorong departure time rather than cancel it. If you are still choosing dates, the seasons in Raja Ampat are a separate question from this one.
None of that closes anything. But a plane that lands in Manokwari instead of Sorong misses the 14:00 ferry, and a missed ferry costs you a night in Sorong, a paid homestay night you will not sleep in, and a boat transfer that already left. That is the real exposure, and it is the one you can plan around.
If your flight and your boat are on the same day, they are not two bookings. They are one, and it only takes one of them to fail.
Two days of heavy rain had not cleared the haze over Sorong as of 14 October. That is worth knowing before you read a report about a fire being contained somewhere and assume the air follows.
Sapta Ananda of Greenpeace Indonesia has described the smoke over Sorong as an accumulation carried by wind from other regions: South Papua, including Merauke and Mappi, as well as Teluk Bintuni and Fakfak in West Papua. If that is right, fires being brought under control near Waisai would not clear the air over Sorong on its own.
What the air was like: Indonesia's own air quality index put Sorong in the unhealthy band on 2 and 3 October, and in the worse very unhealthy band by 12 October. The fine-particle reading behind that, 75.32 micrograms per cubic metre averaged over a day, is around five times the daily level the World Health Organization sets as its guideline. You do not need the number to know what that is. It is the kind of air that closes schools, and Sorong closed them: from Monday 12 October every school in the city, public and private, moved to distance learning until further notice.
Geographic precision matters here, because "Raja Ampat is on fire" and "there were fires at these named points across a regency of roughly 1,500 islands" are very different statements.
Named in the reporting: Waisai Kota, Bonkawir, Warmasen and Sapoekren, and the area behind the RSUD hospital in Waisai. Atkari and Solal, Samate, Pulau Ayau. Pulau Dayan near Batanta. The Warkesi forest on Waigeo, where fire damaged habitat used by birds of paradise, with local estimates of roughly 10 to 20 hectares for that forest sector. Masks were distributed at Waisai schools on 8 October.
Not established either way: Kri, Gam, Arborek, Mansuar, Piaynemo and Misool. I have found nothing that confirms these as affected, and nothing that confirms them as clear. If your homestay is on one of them, the person who knows is your host, not a news site and not me. If you have not booked yet, how to pick a homestay and reach the owner direct is the other half of this problem.
The five confirmations
Build a buffer between the Sorong flight and any boat you have already paid for. A night in Sorong is cheaper than a missed transfer.
If someone in your group has asthma, heart or lung conditions, or you are travelling with young children, the air quality readings are the part to weigh rather than the hectares. A well-fitting N95 or FFP2 filters fine particles better than a surgical mask, though no mask makes smoke-filled air safe. If anyone is symptomatic, that is a medical question, not a travel one.
On 5 October, EcoNusa published a field report from Pulau Dayan, near Batanta. It describes an island homestay family dealing with cancelled bookings, smoke that would not lift, trouble getting fresh water, and neighbours fighting fire with what they had. Those are their words through EcoNusa's reporting, not an interview I did.
Keep that in mind while you work out your own plans. On a small island where a family runs one homestay, a cancelled booking can matter a great deal more than it would elsewhere. If you can move your dates instead of cancelling outright, say so to your host. It is a different conversation from a refund request.
Several different totals are circulating, and they are not competing versions of one count. Each comes from a different agency, covers a different area and a different stretch of time. Added together they produce a number that describes nothing.
| Reported figure | Where and when | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1,254.26 ha | Raja Ampat regency, cumulative area affected to 7 October | Local BPBD via Raja Ampat News |
| ~1,195 ha / ~59 ha | Raja Ampat regency, 7 October: brought under control, versus still being worked | Same report |
| 132.2 ha | Sorong city only: 76 incidents, 92 hotspots, 10 districts, tabulated to 3 October | Sorong city government |
| 123.2 ha | Several Waisai sectors, 4 to 7 October window only | National reporting, around 11 October |
| 552 hotspots | Southwest Papua, ten days to 30 September, of which 186 in Raja Ampat | BMKG Sorong |
Each line is a different jurisdiction, method and period. A satellite burn perimeter, a municipal incident count and a regency cumulative area are not the same measurement.
The 7 October figure is also a snapshot, not a conclusion. Local responders described limited water, difficult access, wind and the risk of reignition. An area recorded as under control one week is not an area that is finished.
No archipelago-wide closure has been announced in any reporting I have checked up to 14 October 2026. Fires were recorded at named locations in the regency, mostly around Waisai, Pulau Dayan and the Warkesi forest on Waigeo. The absence of a closure notice is not a guarantee that conditions are good where you are going, so confirm your specific island with your host.
The airport kept operating through the worst of it, but flights were diverted on several days. A Jakarta service went to Ambon on 5 October, and AirNav confirmed two diversions to Manokwari and Biak on 8 October with departure delays. Visibility was reported around 1,000 metres on 7 October. Garuda moved its Jakarta to Sorong departure time on 8 October rather than cancel. Only your airline can tell you about your flight on your date.
The ferry is running, and no suspension has been announced. What the authorities have said is the part worth carrying: on 13 October the Sorong police marine unit asked skippers and crews not to ignore conditions and to consider postponing a crossing judged unsafe, and on 14 October the search and rescue office warned fishermen and sea users about visibility. Delays are realistic even without a cancellation, so confirm with the operator at the port on the morning you travel.
Indonesia's air quality index put Sorong in the unhealthy band on 2 and 3 October, and in the worse very unhealthy band by 12 October. From 12 October every school in the city, public and private, moved to distance learning until further notice, which tells you how it was being treated locally. For children, older travellers or anyone with asthma or heart conditions, check the current reading before you commit and speak to a doctor if there is any doubt.
There is no honest blanket answer, and anyone giving you one is guessing. The things that decide it are whether your flights can be changed, whether your boat transfers and homestay nights are already paid and non-refundable, how long you are staying, and whether anyone in the group is vulnerable to smoke. If you can move rather than cancel, tell your host that: on a small island the difference between a postponement and a cancellation is real money.
Some marine activities were reported as continuing locally, and haze sits above the water rather than in it. But the boat ride to the site happens in the smoke, visibility on the surface affects how boats move, and operators make their own calls. Ask the dive centre or homestay running the trip, for the days you will be there. What you can see from the surface is covered in Raja Ampat without diving.
Reporting is in Indonesian. The figures above keep the date and the area they were published with, and I have not converted one agency's measurement into another's.
Page published. Smoke still over Sorong, and two days of rain had not cleared it. Sorong search and rescue warned sea users about visibility, following a 13 October advisory from the police marine unit about postponing unsafe crossings. Distance learning extended for all city schools since 12 October. No general closure of Raja Ampat and no ferry suspension found in the reporting reviewed.
The full guide
Separate from all of this: the guide I wrote from my own trip, with the ferry and transfer logistics, the homestays I slept in and what I paid. It is not an emergency document and it will not tell you what the air is like this week.
See the Raja Ampat guide →Iddar
WildRoute · Field Edition