[Kabar-indonesia] Haze forces Merpati to cancel Medan-Pekanbaru flights for 8 days

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post (web site)
October 8, 2006

Airline stops flights for 8 days to Riau 

PEKANBARU, Riau (Agencies): Thicker haze above Sumatra island has caused 
Merpati Airline to stop its flights from North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan 
to Riau provincial capital of Pekanbaru for eight days.

"Merpati has told the airport that it will not operate up to 11," Fajri Umar, 
an officer on duty at Sultan Syarif Kasim International Airport in Pekanbaru, 
was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.He did not say the reason of the 
fight stop, but it may spark by thick haze above the airport.

Meanwhile, several other airlines from various directions also rescheduled 
their flights to and from the airport due to the thick haze sparked by worsening 
forest fires in Riau and its neighboring provinces.

He said the airport were usually covered by haze in the morning, shortening 
vision to some 300 to 400 meters.

On Friday, schools in East Kalimantan provincial capital of Pontianak were 
closed due to worsening air quality there. The haze also dragged air quality to 
"unhealthy" levels in much of nearby Malaysia, including in its largest city 
Kuala Lumpur and other tourist and business centers.

Firefighters in Indonesia said they were battling the illegally set 
land-clearing blazes 24 hours a day, while students handed out masks to protect 
residents from the acrid haze that has darkened skies over 215,000 square miles 
(557,000 square kilometers) of land.

The Schools in Pontianak closed on government orders, AP reported.

Farmers or agricultural companies set the fires on Borneo and Indonesia's 
Sumatra island as a cheap way to clear land for plantations, mostly for palm oil, 
during the region's annual midyear dry season. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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