Boarding day at Labuan Bajo harbour, late 2026: the checks before you sail and how to pay without being stranded

Every guest who sails from Labuan Bajo is a line on a list. Under Transport Ministry regulation PM 28/2022, promulgated on 23 September 2022, an owner applying for a sailing clearance has to attach the passenger manifest and the crew list, along with the captain's declaration, a checklist of the ship's obligations and a report on its condition. The manifest is how the harbour master counts the people aboard. A missing or misspelt name breaks the count.

The pier has its own gate. According to detikBali on 23 July 2024, the harbour office, KSOP Labuan Bajo, moved tour-boat boarding to electronic passes that month. Owners or their agents enter each guest's name on a booking platform, which produces the manifest and one barcode per person. You show the code at the Marina terminal gate and scan it again before stepping aboard. Passes stop being issued once a boat reaches the capacity printed on its certificate, and the final manifest is closed only after boarding. The same report named the weak spot: guests who board from unofficial jetties, or who are switched to another boat at sea, fall outside the list.

We found no 2026 report of a change. Ask which pier your boat uses.

The clearance is the SPB, short for Surat Persetujuan Berlayar, and only the harbour master can issue it. PM 28/2022 bases it on the vessel's seaworthiness; a harbour master who learns that a boat may not be fit can inspect it and hold its departure. Weather is a separate ground for refusal, judged against the size and type of the vessel. The captain, too, may refuse to sail if he knows the boat is unfit.

Two details shape your morning. A clearance covers one voyage. It lapses if the boat has not left port within 24 hours of issue, so nobody can show you next week's clearance today.

Tax and licensing sit in the same queue. On 3 July detikTravel reported that the regency had written to KSOP asking it to withhold clearances from tour boats behind on local tax; the harbour office said it would follow up. On 11 June iNews quoted a regional councillor who told a plenary session that only about 200 of some 812 tour boats in Labuan Bajo waters were licensed. One politician's figure, not an audit. Still, learn which company holds a boat's papers before you transfer a deposit.

Two phinisi sank in Labuan Bajo waters on 26 and 29 December 2025. On 1 January 2026 Infobanknews quoted a member of the parliamentary transport commission who argued that a seaworthiness stamp alone does not make a boat safe. The member wanted audits that test engines and safety systems in real conditions instead of reading files, and clearances linked to warnings from BMKG, the national weather agency. Those were proposals, not rules.

What exists today is a patchwork. Bisnis.com reported on 23 April that the tourism ministry was encouraging certification for marine-tourism operators; the ministry said training had already been given to guides and cited a safety talk in Labuan Bajo that month. Spot checks happen as well: in August 2024 a surprise inspection by local officials found one boat carrying an expired fire extinguisher and another whose crew did not know how to use one (ANTARA, 5 August 2024). We found no published 2026 rule that sets a life-jacket count at the gate.

So do the tally yourself in your first ten minutes on board. Count the jackets against the heads on deck. Ask where they are stowed. If no safety briefing has been given by the time the boat clears the harbour, ask the crew for one.

A boat that stays tied up on a closed day is obeying the law. ANTARA reported on 11 August that KSOP Labuan Bajo had taken a captain off his vessel and suspended his certificate for three weeks, after he carried a group of tourists to Padar Island while a weather ban was in force. The office's head called the ban a measure to stop fatal sinkings from happening again and said other captains proven to have broken the sailing rules would be sanctioned. Some local operators who had kept their boats in port questioned the trip.

The regulation gives the harbour master two tools on a bad morning: delay the departure, or refuse the clearance. It sets no fixed waiting time for either. From the pier, both look the same at first: your group waits, and the crew waits with you.

Your money is decided by the contract, not by the port. Before you pay, read what the seller promises if a departure is cancelled by an authority, and get that promise in writing.

Three cases from 2026 share one feature: none of them began at the harbour. On 6 April three German visitors spent about five hours at Marina harbour waiting for a boat that never arrived; Floresa reported on 11 April that police stepped in and arranged another departure. The agency they had paid was based in Jakarta and, according to the provincial travel-agents' association ASITA NTT (Metro TV, 9 April), held no business licence in the province.

In August the numbers grew. ANTARA reported on 14 August that 22 Chinese tourists reached Labuan Bajo to learn that the boat promised to them had never been chartered. Police detained an unofficial agent suspected of running off with 244.2 million rupiah that belonged to a Canadian tourism businessman. On 2 October detikBali described three visitors who sent 7.65 million rupiah in three transfers for a two-day trip; after the last transfer cleared the bill, the seller went silent. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them.

Two of the three, in April and October, come down to money paid to a seller whose standing nobody had verified; the August report does not say who paid whom, or when. ASITA's advice in April was short: check reviews and legal status, pay into a company account and not a personal one, and prefer agents who belong to a recognised association. On 10 October detikBali reported a free legal-advice post, run by the district prosecutor's office, inside the one-stop service office at the KSOP harbour building, open to residents and foreign visitors. Its hours and languages have not been published.

Four gaps, stated plainly. We found no 2026 report on whether the barcode gate introduced in July 2024 still runs as described, or whether staff compare passports with the manifest. We found no public rule for a life-jacket count at the pier. The regency's tax condition for clearances had no start date in the 3 July report, and we have read no later notice that fixes one.

The fourth gap is the councillor's estimate of roughly 200 licensed boats out of 812. No official register we could open confirms or corrects it. When any of these points changes, this page will be revised and the date at the top will move with it. Until then, check the company name and registration number in the footer of the site you booked on against your invoice on the day you pay.