Bali unaffected by magnitude 7.7 Flores earthquake, but Ende flights cancelled and central Flores travel disrupted

What happened

At 05:58 local time (WITA) on Saturday 15 August 2026, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Flores Sea off the northern coast of Flores island, in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province. The epicentre sat near Mbay in Nagekeo regency, roughly 68 km north northwest of the town of Ende and about 200 km northeast of Labuan Bajo, at a shallow depth of around 15 km. Shallow offshore quakes of that size shake violently on land, and this one did.

The toll has climbed steadily through the week. The first reports on the day of the quake counted 47 dead. By Sunday, as rescue teams reached cut off villages, that figure had risen to 53, with thousands of people displaced. By 17 August the confirmed death toll had reached at least 68, with thousands still waiting on aid. Around 5,000 people have been evacuated from damaged villages. Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, has since recorded close to 1,000 aftershocks, several of them strong enough to be felt clearly across central Flores.

BMKG issued a tsunami early warning within minutes, covering East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi. The waves that actually arrived were small. A tide gauge at Labuan Bajo measured about 0.36 m, and about 0.94 m was recorded at Maurole near Ende. The warning was lifted roughly three hours after the main shock. The serious damage was on land rather than from the sea: collapsed and cracked buildings in and around Ende and Nagekeo, landslides blocking sections of the Trans Flores highway, and rescue crews working through rubble in mountain villages that took more than a day to reach.

While the warning was active, the US Embassy issued an alert telling travelers in East Nusa Tenggara to move away from coastal areas and seek higher ground.

Why it matters for travelers

Bali itself was not damaged. The epicentre was roughly 685 km east of Kuta, and I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar reported normal flight operations and airport services from the moment the quake struck, with no cancellations. The airport also confirmed that its scheduled services to East Nusa Tenggara were running normally. If your trip is Bali only, this event does not change anything about your plans.

The reason it belongs on a Bali page anyway is that Denpasar is the connecting hub for the whole eastern archipelago. Most travelers who visit Komodo National Park, dive Flores, or drive the Trans Flores route from Labuan Bajo to Maumere arrive on a short hop out of Bali. That means a large share of the people affected by this quake are, right now, sitting in Bali with a forward booking they are unsure about.

The picture for those onward legs is mixed rather than uniformly bad, and the distinction matters:

Labuan Bajo and Komodo, at the western end of Flores, are functioning. Komodo International Airport had its runway and apron inspected and declared safe, and it kept operating. Komodo National Park never closed, and boat trips have been running normally since 16 August. Labuan Bajo is about 200 km from the epicentre and saw a wave of roughly a third of a metre, which is well below anything destructive.

Ende and central Flores are a different situation. Flights into Ende were cancelled, the town is close to the epicentre, and this is where the deaths, the displaced population and the landslides are concentrated. Aid is still arriving. This is an active disaster response zone, not a destination.

What to do

If you are in Bali and staying in Bali: carry on. There is no advisory affecting Bali, no airport disruption and no tsunami risk from this event. You do not need to change hotels, routes or timing.

If you are booked from Bali to Labuan Bajo or Komodo: the trip is very likely still viable, but confirm rather than assume. Message your boat operator or dive shop directly and ask two specific questions: whether their vessel and jetty were inspected after 15 August, and whether their itinerary still calls at any port in Nagekeo or Ende regency. Reputable Labuan Bajo operators have been answering this openly. Check your flight status the evening before you fly, since aftershock driven inspections can pull an aircraft off a route at short notice even when the airport is open.

If you are booked into Ende, Nagekeo, Bajawa or the central Flores overland route: postpone. Not because of tourist risk in the abstract, but because road access is unreliable, accommodation and medical capacity are being used by people who lost their homes, and independent travelers moving through the area add load to a stretched response. If your itinerary was Labuan Bajo to Maumere by road, treat the overland middle section as closed for now and fly the leg instead, or shorten the trip to the western end.

On aftershocks: with almost a thousand recorded, more strong shaking is likely for weeks. On the coast anywhere in East Nusa Tenggara, use the standard rule rather than waiting for an official alert: if shaking is strong enough that standing is difficult, or it lasts longer than about 20 seconds, move inland or uphill immediately and stay there for at least an hour. Official warnings are fast in Indonesia, but a locally generated wave can arrive in less time than a warning takes to reach a phone with patchy signal.

On timing and money: BMKG at bmkg.go.id is the authoritative source for quake and tsunami information, and your own government's embassy alerts are the second. Avoid booking non refundable onward legs into Flores for the next two weeks. If you are cancelling, do it through the operator first, since most Labuan Bajo operators are currently offering date changes without penalty and that is usually a better outcome than an insurance claim on a route that is officially still open.

Bali's wider safety picture

Bali scores 79 on Kakapo's safety index, which places it comfortably in the safe range for independent travel, and this earthquake does not change that score. Nothing about Bali's risk profile shifted on 15 August.

It is worth keeping the risk ranking honest, though. For a visitor to Bali, the things most likely to cause harm are, in order: scooter and road traffic collisions, which account for the large majority of serious tourist injuries on the island; drowning and rip currents on the south and west coasts, particularly around Canggu, Echo Beach and Uluwatu; and opportunistic theft, including bag snatching from moving scooters. Earthquakes are far down that list, and volcanic ash disruption to flights, which has repeatedly closed Bali routes in recent years, is a more common travel headache than seismic damage.

That said, Bali sits on the same active margin as Flores and has had damaging quakes of its own. Basic preparation is reasonable and costs nothing: know that your accommodation's exit route works in the dark, keep shoes and a phone within reach at night, and if you are staying on the coast, know which direction is uphill.

The bottom line

Bali is unaffected and operating normally. Komodo and Labuan Bajo are open and running trips. Central Flores around Ende is in the middle of a serious disaster response and should be left alone for now. If your trip touches only the first two, confirm your bookings and go.