HAZE STILL HAMPERING FLIGHTS IN KALIMANTAN

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Sept 10 (ANTARA) - Haze that has blanketed at least three airports in West and Central Kalimantan provinces has been disturbing flight activities to and from the regions in the past few days.

        Pontianak's Supadio airport of West Kalimantan was closed for one hour on Thursday while Beringin airport of Muara Teweh of Central Kalimantan still remained quiet from flight activities.

        Tjilik Riwut airport of Palangkaraya (Central Kalimantan), after being closed for five days has, however, reopened but some airlines had not yet served the route to the airport until Thursday.

        "We hope our plane will begin landing again at Tjilik Riwut tomorrow (Sept. 11) because the airport has begun to be clear of haze and it has been reopened," General Manager for Garuda Indonesia for Palangkaraya Agus Dewanta said in Palangkaraya on Thursday.

        In the meantime, flight activities at Beringin airport in North Barito District, Central Kalimantan, have not yet resumed. The haze was still thick. Flights to this airport have been stopped in the past five days.

        "Flights activities at Beringin airport are still completely stopped because thick haze still blanketed this region," Muara Teweh airport official Sidik said on Thursday.

        Due to the haze in Central Kalimantan, airport authorities closed Tjilik Riwut airport of Palangkaraya on Tuesday for all flights.

        Head of the airport, Jamaluddin Hasibuan said the visibility at the runways reached only about 400 meters which was considerably worse than the minimum of 1,600 meters. The runways cannot be used at all," Hasibuan said.

        He said that due to the thick haze, his side closed the airport and banned all flights from landing and taking off at the airport.

        As the result of the closure, five airlines canceled 14 of their flights at the airport on Tuesday. The canceled regular flights were those of Batavia Air over the Jakarta-Palangkaraya-Jakarta route and the Surabaya-Palangkaraya-Surabaya route, of Sriwijaya for the Jakarta-Palangkaraya-Jakarta route, and Garuda for Jakarta-Palangkaraya-Jakarta route.

        Local flights which were canceled included those of Susi Air for the Palangkaraya-Murara Teweh-Palangkaraya route and Aviastar for the Palangkaraya-Buntok-Palangkaraya and Palangkaraya-Muara Teweh-Palangkaraya routes.

        "Sriwijaya passengers had been diverted to Syamsuddin Noor airport in South Kalimantan," Hasibuan said on Tuesday.

        However, Garuda Indonesia will begin its flight on Friday and serve the Jakarta- Palangkaraya-Jakarta route again after canceling its flights for five days.

        "We hope our plane will be landing again beginning tomorrow. After all the haze is declining and the airport has been reopened again," Agus Dewanta said on Thursday.

        Agus said that his airlines diverted its flight operations to Syamsuddin Noor airport in South Kalimantan, about 180 km east of Palangkaraya. The passengers were transported free of charge with buses from Banjarbaru in South Kalimantan to Palangkaraya or vice versa.

        The diversion of transportation by land of passengers was done because Garuda had no other choices as the condition of Tjilik Riwut airport in the past several days was bad for flights. "We see now that airport condition has begun to be conducive where the airport has begun to be clear of haze so that we would resume flight activities at the airport tomorrow," Agus Dewanta said.

        If Tjilik Riwut airport has been reopened, flights activities at Beringin airport of Murara Teweh were still stopped. Visibility up to Thursday was still at a range between 500 and 800 meters.

        "We hope a strong wind will clear the airport tomorrow. The haze actually was brought in by the wind from the south," airport administrator of Beringin in Muara Teweh, Sidik, said.

        He said that the thick haze had canceled flights over the past five days. "The activities are still completely stopped today," he said.

        He said that virtually, the airport was not closed but due to the haze flights from Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan) and Palangkaraya were canceled.

        In the meantime, flights were also canceled at West Kalimantan airport of Supadio on Thursday because the airport was closed for at least one hour due to haze. That was the second closure in two days.

        With visibility reduced to only 400 meters by haze, Pontianak's Supadio airport was closed from 6 am to 7 am on Thursday.

        "Earlier today, we had to close the airport for one hour because visibility in the morning was just 400 meters, while normal visibility is around 800 meters," Syarif Usmulyani, head of the local chapter of PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II's traffic service, said.

        He regretted that the local authorities did not immediately anticipate the emergence of haze coming from forest fires in Palangkaraya (Central Kalimantan) and Ketapang District.

        However, he considered today's condition was better than the previous day when visibility was just 300-400 meters, forcing the airport's closure for several hours.

        He said that even though Supadio was already equipped with good devices such as visual only direction (VOD), distance measuring equipment (DME) and instrument landing system (ILS), airplanes remained unable to land due to the range of visibility which was below the normal level.***3*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/21:30/H-YH)

        (T.A014/A/A014/A/H-YH) 10-09-2009 21:58:04