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moke from forest and land fires has again blanketed most parts of Riau province, disrupting flight schedules and affecting the quality of human health, local officials said Tuesday.

Haze led to the closure of the Pinang Kapai airport in Dumai city on Monday due to poor visibility there, leaving at least five flights canceled.

Airport head Edi Supiatnadi said since the last two days a number of flights from and to the town were disrupted because of the smoke.

He said a Pelita Air plane serving the Jakarta-Pekanbaru-Dumai-Singapura route failed to land at the Pinang Kapai airport Tuesday morning as the visibility was less than 1000 meters.

"From Pekanbaru, the plane directly continued flying to Singapore. The airport would be reopened if the visibility was over 1000 meters."

A day earlier, he added, haze canceled at least five flight schedules from and to Pinang Kampai.

"Yesterday *Monday* the airport was closed for around six hours and all flights were rerouted to Pekanbaru."

The smoke also increased the cases of acute respiratory problems (ISPA) in several regions across the affected province.

Rokan Hilir health office head Muhammad Junaidi Saleh said the ISPA cases increased to 1,208 in April and 1,214 in May in his regency.

"During the normal conditions, an average of only 350 ISPA patients visit health centers for treatment," he added.

Junaidi said most cases of ISPA were recorded at Bangko subdistrict, which has been hit hard by haze.

"Data on the number of ISPA patients for this month is not yet collected. It is expected to continue increasing because smoke in June is thicker than the previous two months."

A similar increase of ISPA cases was also reported in Dumai.

Senior Dumai health official Marjoko said such an increase was recorded almost every week.

The regency worst-affected by haze in Riau was Rokan Hilir, where fires destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of forest and land areas.

Rokan Hilir forestry office head Tugiman Marto said forest fires extensively spread to Rantaubais in Tanah Putih subdistrict for the last three days, destroying almost 2,000 hectares of land.

"Currently all fire-fighting forces numbering 40 personnel are concentrated in Rantaubais to control the blazes."

Data from the Satellite National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released by Pekanbaru's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), showed at least 45 hot spots spreading in nine regencies across Riau on Tuesday, mostly in Palalawan (18), Rokan Hilir (10), Kampar (5), Siak (4) and Benkalis (3).

According to Pekanbaru's BMKG weather analyst Warih, the number of hot spots decreased Tuesday from 111 a day.