Labuan Bajo airport: flights, transfers and bag limits

Landing at Komodo Airport

You see the islands before you see the runway. The approach into Labuan Bajo runs in over water and the green hills at the western end of Flores, and the wheels touch 2,650 metres of asphalt that was a grass strip in the 1970s. ³ From Bali the flight takes about 1 hour 10 minutes. From the terminal door to the harbour takes about ten. ¹

Komodo International Airport is small, new and busier than its size suggests. A 2022 expansion gave it a 13,366 square metre terminal and seven aircraft parking stands: four for narrow-body jets, three for propeller planes. ³ Those three propeller stands are the whole story of this page. Jets from Bali and Jakarta park beside turboprops heading out across Flores, and the two aircraft types play by different baggage rules.

PT Cardig Aero Service, working with Singapore's Changi Airports International, has run the airport on a 25-year concession since 2020. ³ What that buys an arriving traveller is a tidy terminal with an official taxi counter in the arrivals hall and a short road down the hill into town. ⁶

• Codes LBJ and WATO, elevation 69 metres, runway 2,650m by 45m. ³
• Nine scheduled airlines, reaching eleven Indonesian cities and two foreign ones. ³
• About 1 hour 10 minutes from Bali, and about ten minutes from the terminal to the harbour. ¹

Which airlines fly into Labuan Bajo?

Nine carriers, read from the airport's destination table and from live route data on 26 September 2026.

Two airlines fly the route almost everyone wants. Batik Air and Indonesia AirAsia run the Bali nonstop, both on Airbus A320s, seven departures a day between them, 1h05 to 1h20 in the air across 521km. ⁵ Garuda Indonesia flew its last scheduled Bali nonstop in October 2025, and Wings Air dropped the same route back in 2023. ⁵

Wings Air is the connector. Read its row again: Bajawa, Ende, Kupang, Lombok, Makassar, Maumere and Tambolaka. Seven regional routes, and a 72-seat ATR 72 turboprop on every one. ^{3, 4} Lion Air Group added Kupang daily, Lombok three times a week and Bima four times a week in July 2025, all on the same aircraft, with departures out of Labuan Bajo at 12:45 and 09:30 local time. ¹³

Bajawa, up the spine of Flores, sits about 35 minutes away by air. When Lion Air Group reopened that link in May 2022 it advertised one-way fares from Rp553,400, which is about USD 30.89 at today's reference rate. ^{4, 9} That figure is a 2022 launch price. Take it as the shape of the fare and price the current one yourself.

Can you fly into Labuan Bajo from another country?

Yes, on two routes, both of them thin and both of them new. Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation granted Komodo Airport international status on 2 April 2024. ³ AirAsia Malaysia opened the first foreign service five months later: Kuala Lumpur, three flights a week under the AK code. ¹⁰

Singapore took longer to settle. Jetstar Asia flew it from March 2025 and stopped on 31 July 2025 when the airline wound up its Singapore operation. ³ Scoot restored the link on 21 December 2025, twice a week on a 112-seat Embraer E190-E2, with launch fares from S$170 out of Singapore and S$126 out of Labuan Bajo. ¹¹

Three flights a week and two flights a week is a narrow door. Most visitors still come through Denpasar or Jakarta, and MMT prices that leg in full in the Bali to Labuan Bajo guide.

What baggage do you get on a Labuan Bajo flight?

Free checked allowance runs from 20kg down to nothing. The aircraft decides, more than the airline.

Batik Air gives economy passengers 20kg in the hold on domestic routes. Wings Air gives zero. Indonesia AirAsia sits at 15kg, Lion Air and Super Air Jet at 10kg, Susi Air at 10kg. ^{2, 14, 15} Same airport, same afternoon, a twenty-fold spread in what you can check for free.

Cabin size shifts with the aircraft too. On Lion Group's jets a cabin bag can measure 40 by 30 by 20 centimetres. On a Wings Air ATR the limit is 35 by 30 by 20. ¹⁶ Five centimetres sounds trivial until a sizer at the gate decides your carry-on goes in the hold. Divers should read flying with scuba gear before packing a regulator, and liveaboard against shore diving before choosing a boat.

The propeller routes that carry no free bag

Lion Group's own baggage table puts it in one line: Wings Air's free checked allowance is nil, domestic or international, while every jet-flying Lion Group brand gives at least 10kg. ² Every Wings Air service out of Labuan Bajo fits that description. Fly Denpasar to Labuan Bajo on Batik Air with 20kg in the hold, connect onward to Bajawa on Wings Air, and the same suitcase turns into a counter transaction. ^{2, 3}

Susi Air goes smaller again. Its Cessna Grand Caravan carries up to 12 passengers in commuter layout, and that is the aircraft on the Waingapu run. ^{12, 3} Susi Air allows 6kg in the cabin and 10kg checked, the tightest at this airport, and charges excess by the kilo at check-in. ¹⁵

There is history behind all this. Within living memory the strip here took Twin Otters and little else. The runway reached 1,200 metres in the 1990s, 1,650 metres in 2003, 1,850 metres by 2007 and 2,100 metres in time for the first Boeing 737 landing on 13 September 2013. ³ The jets are the newcomers. The propellers are the old normal, and on seven routes they still set the rules.

How much is a taxi from the airport to Labuan Bajo harbour?

Three operators in town publish three different numbers for the same short ride. Here they all are.

Somewhere between IDR 50,000 and IDR 150,000 for a car, and the spread is real. The terminal sits 2.5 to 3 kilometres from the harbour, an 8 to 15 minute drive, most of it downhill. ^{6, 7} A flagged street taxi, a pre-booked car and the official arrivals counter are three different transactions, which is why a tour operator, a transfer company and a hotel each quote a different fare for the same 3km. ^{6, 8, 7}

Gojek and Grab are the cheap way in, at IDR 30,000 to 50,000, with drivers waiting near the terminal. ⁶ Both are phone apps, so they want a working Indonesian data connection the moment you land. Sort the eSIM before you fly. The Indonesia travel guide is the place to plan the wider trip.

The harbour is three places, not one. A ferry pier, a marina where the liveaboards tie up, and a speedboat pickup zone sit along the same waterfront. ⁶ Tell the driver which one you want. If the boat decision is still open, MMT weighs a liveaboard against day trips and totals up what a Komodo trip costs.

Your first hour on the ground

Five moves, in order, and the arrival goes smoothly. Each one costs a minute inside the terminal and saves money or an argument outside it.

1. 01

   Collect the bag and read the signs

   Domestic arrivals use one small terminal of 13,366 square metres, rebuilt in 2022. ³

2. 02

   Get online before you leave the building

   Gojek and Grab both need mobile data. Without a local eSIM the cheap ride option stays shut and the counter becomes your fallback. ⁶

3. 03

   Walk to the official taxi counter in arrivals

   It quotes IDR 100,000 to 150,000 to the harbour. The drivers calling to you outside quote IDR 250,000 to 400,000 for the same 2.5km. ⁶

4. 04

   Name the part of the harbour you want

   Ferry pier, liveaboard marina and speedboat pickup are separate spots along one waterfront, and the fare assumes a destination. ⁶

5. 05

   Reconfirm the onward propeller leg

   If the next flight is a Wings Air ATR or a Susi Air Caravan, settle the hold-bag charge and the cabin-bag size while there is still a desk in front of you. ^{16, 2, 15}

Whose place this is

The airport, the town and the harbour all sit in West Manggarai Regency, at the western end of Flores. Komodo Island lies in Komodo District of the same regency. The people of Komodo village call themselves Ata Modo, the Modo people, and their island Tana Modo, and their language is their own, separate from Manggarai on mainland Flores. ¹⁷

The airport's standing is an Indonesian government decision, and decisions change. The Ministry of Transportation granted international status on 2 April 2024, and the 2022 terminal arrived with a 25-year concession to a private operator. ³ Plan around the rule that holds today, then check it again in the week before you fly.