TransNusa

Is TransNusa safe?

TransNusa has never had a fatal accident, and on its current jet network it has had no serious incident that we could find. That is a good record, but a short and thin one. The airline relaunched with Airbus jets only in October 2022, its A320s are about 20 years old, and it is not an IATA member, so we cannot confirm that it passes IATA's IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary operational safety audit. We score it 73, level with Super Air Jet (73), just below Batik Air (75) and well above Lion Air (62). Our confidence in the number is low.

Who is TransNusa?

TransNusa (code 8B) is the trading name of PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri, founded in 2005. In 2016 it was a small regional airline with ATR 42 and Fokker 50 turboprops, BAe 146s and a Fokker 70 on routes around Indonesia (ch-aviation). New owners took over in 2019, and the airline says it received its current air operator certificate on 9 September 2022 and flew its first A320 on 6 October 2022. Its first international flight followed in April 2023.

Today it flies from Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta and Bali to islands such as Lombok, Manado and Wakatobi, and abroad to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Guangzhou, Bangkok and Phuket. Perth to Bali went from 3 flights a week in April 2025 to 21 by July 2026, and Melbourne to Bali started in October 2026. The airline sells itself as a "premium service carrier", with a checked bag and snacks in the fare, though AirlineRatings says it is not the cheapest way to Bali.

The one aircraft TransNusa lost

On the night of 4 April 2016, TransNusa ATR 42-600 PK-TNJ, then less than two years old, was being towed from the north to the south apron at Jakarta's Halim airport. That meant crossing the active runway. The aircraft had no electrical power, so its navigation lights, strobes and radios were off; two engineers sat in the pilot seats to work the brakes. The tug driver talked to the tower on a handheld radio on a separate frequency. At the same time the tower cleared Batik Air flight ID7703, a 737-800 with 56 people on board, for take-off. The 737 hit the ATR at about 130 knots, past the speed at which a take-off can still be safely abandoned, and its left wing caught fire. Nobody was hurt, and the ATR was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.

The failure was in the tower's clearance and the towing set-up, not in a TransNusa flight crew. Indonesia's transport ministry suspended the ground handler, Jasa Angkasa Semesta, at Halim while the investigation ran, and TransNusa temporarily suspended its ATR passenger flights. Under our rules, a loss caused by air traffic control or another company's vehicle still counts but weighs lightly, so it keeps TransNusa below the top of its band rather than pushing it down. The Batik Air page describes the same event from the 737's side.

How old are TransNusa's planes?

Old, for the A320s. TransNusa had 19 aircraft in July 2026, a mix of A320s, A321s and C909s, and said it would add four by the end of the year (TTG Asia). In January 2025 AirlineRatings put the average age of its A320s at nearly 19 years and its A321s at over 20. The A320 family is a fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary type with a strong record, and age alone does not make an aircraft unsafe. But older jets need more maintenance, and a small airline has few spare aircraft when one breaks. In September 2026 TransNusa signed up for Airbus's Skywise data tools, which feed live aircraft data to its maintenance control centre.

The C909, sold until 2024 as the ARJ21, is a Chinese regional jet. TransNusa took its first in December 2022 and in April 2023 flew the type's first passenger service outside China (AIN). It has no fatal accident or hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary, but its record is short and mostly Chinese domestic flying, so it proves less than the A320's.

Why the score is not higher

No confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. Garuda Indonesia, Citilink, Batik Air and Lion Air are IATA members, which means each passes the IOSA audit every two years. TransNusa was not on IATA's member list when we searched on 3 November 2026, and AirlineRatings reported in October 2026 that it is still not IOSA-registered. That is why oversight scores 66, the same as Super Air Jet and six below the Indonesian airlines with IOSA (72).

A short jet record. Four years of A320 flying says little on its own, and Indonesia's investigators publish fewer reports than those in Europe or Australia. The one event we found is minor: on 18 October 2024, flight 8B151 from Jakarta to Singapore went back to the stand before take-off with a landing gear door sensor fault, was repaired and landed in Singapore about two and a half hours late (Kompas). In May 2024 a ground handling worker fell from the door of a TransNusa A320 at Jakarta after other staff moved the stairs; our rules do not count falls at the stand, but it shows the ground handling risk.

Indonesia's weather. TransNusa's domestic routes sit in a hard region. Forest-fire haze cancelled six TransNusa flights at Singkawang in West Kalimantan in August 2026, and ash from Anak Krakatau cancelled its Jakarta to Lampung flights in September 2026 (ANTARA). Cancelling in those conditions is the right call.

How to fly TransNusa more safely

• Check the aircraft type. TransNusa flies both A320-family jets and the C909. Both are certified types, but if you prefer a type with a long record, the booking page or a flight tracker shows which one is planned.
• On the Bali red-eye, sleep before you drive. The Melbourne return leaves Bali at 8.45pm and lands at 5.40am; the bigger risk that morning is a tired drive home, not the flight.
• Allow for delays. A small fleet has little backup, so a technical fault can mean hours on the ground. Do not book a tight connection on another ticket.

How we scored it

The accident record (85) carries the score: no deaths, and one write-offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary that others caused. The fleet (60) is the weakest factor because the A320s and A321s are about 20 years old, and oversight (66) is held back by the missing IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary confirmation. Overall it scores 73. Citilink (77) has a longer record and an IOSA audit; Batik Air (75) has IOSA but a 2024 serious incident in which both pilots fell asleep.