Haze hits Pekanbaru flights
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At least two flights were turned away from Pekanbaru on Monday, due to the haze currently hanging over the Indonesian city.
A SilkAir flight from Singapore and an AirAsia service from Kuala Lumpur were both forced to abandon their planned landings at Pekanbaru’s Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport this morning due to poor visibility. Smoke drifting over the airport from nearby forest fires has reduced visibility to as low as 300 metres, Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported.
Syarif Kasim II airport’s Duty Manager, known only as Baiquni, was quoted saying that operations shut down completely on Monday morning, when the haze was at its thickest, but reopened later.
“The airport was… forced to close temporarily on one occasion due to the smoke,” Baiquni said. “As a result, both departures and arrivals of international flight schedules had changed.”
Pekanbaru is the capital of Indonesia’s Riau province – the area worst affected by the recent haze. Flights continue to operate as scheduled at Singapore’s Changi Airport, while services are also reported to be unaffected at Senai Airport in neighbouring Johor Bahru.
Malaysia Airlines’ operations control centre chief, Mohd Fuad Mohd Sharuji, was reported by Malaysia’s Bernama news agency as saying that “aircraft can still land” at Johor, but that the airline was prepared to postpone or cancel flights if the haze worsened.
Singapore’s second airport, Seletar, closed last week due to the haze.
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