REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM -- Some airlines will suspend flights from Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam to Jambi, Pekanbaru, and Medan for a week due to thick smog from forest fires in the Sumatra mainland which has reduced visibility.

"Airlines such as Citilink, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air will suspend some flights to Jambi, Pekanbaru, Medan and Padang for a week," head of General Affairs division of Hang Nadim Batam, Suwarso said here Monday.

Sriwijaya Air will temporarily stop flights on the Jambi-Batam-Medan route and vice versa, while Citilink will suspend flights on the Surabaya-Batam-Padang route and vice versa. Lion Air will temporarily close the Batam-Jambi-Pekanbaru route, Suwarso stated.

Although the airlines have confirmed suspension of flights for a week starting Monday, it was possible to resume flights immediately before the deadline, if the weather improved.

"We will evaluate it every day. If the weather improves immediately the airlines will notify us to fly as soon as possible. If it does not improve, we will evaluate it for the next seven days," he said.

The airlines management took the decision after considering the many flight cancellations in the recent weeks due to the smoke which made it increasingly dark, according to him.

"Today, visibility in Jambi and Pekanbaru is only about 200 meters. Hence, all flights have been canceled," said Suwarso.

On Monday, at least ten flights from Batam to Jambi, Pekanbaru, and Medan, apart from Natuna, Jakarta and Surabaya were canceled due to the thick smog, according to the Hang Nadim's authority.

Since the disruption, about 70 flights from Batam, especially to the mainland of Sumatra, have been canceled.

Batam is actually subject to impact only. Visibility in Batam is still over 3,000 meters.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had ordered every stakeholder to help extinguish forest fires and to tackle haze engulfing parts of Indonesia over the past few weeks, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Head Willem Rampangilei stated.

"The president`s instruction on the ongoing haze disaster is to extinguish the fires and to end the haze problem immediately," Rampangilei remarked while visiting the command post of the forest fire task force at the Roesmin Nurjadin Air Force Base, Pekanbaru, recently.

"Within two weeks, plantation fires must be put out," he quoted Jokowi as saying.

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