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Haze disrupts Palembang airport, stops Garuda from landing
A thick haze filling the air of South Sumatra provincial capital Palembang and its surrounding areas has disrupted flights to and from the cityâs Sutan Mahmud Baharuddin II Airport
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thick haze filling the air of South Sumatra provincial capital Palembang and its surrounding areas has disrupted flights to and from the city's Sutan Mahmud Baharuddin II Airport.
The public relations manager of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, Achmad Syarir, said on Thursday that two planes had been unable to land at the airport due to limited visibility.
'We have not closed the airport yet, but there have been planes that could not land,' Achmad said as quoted by tempo.co. According to Achmad, a Garuda Indonesia flight arriving from Jakarta returned to Jakarta, while Garuda's Bandung-Palembang route was redirected to Jakarta.
Meanwhile, airport authorities were not allowing any planes to take off from the airport.
Achmad said that he could not make any predictions regarding when the airport's activity would back to normal. 'It depends on conditions in the air. 'The regulator will issue a statement on whether the airport will be closed or not,' he added.
Forest fires burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan have become an annual disaster, disrupting flights and causing health problems, particularly for local people. In previous years, the haze from the forest fires has also affected Singapore and Malaysia.
The government has not found a way to stop the wild fires. (bbn)
