REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Sultan Syarif Kasim International Airport in Pekanbaru city, Riau Province, canceled 60 flights on Wednesday due to thick haze, the airport authority said.
"Until 13.00 p.m. local time, of the 78 flights scheduled for today, 60 have been canceled," the airport's duty manager, Ibnu Hasan, said here on Wednesday.
According to Hasan, half of Riau province was covered in thick smoke on Wednesday afternoon, with visibility between 300 to 500 meters.
Airlines whose flights were canceled today were Citilink, Fire Fly, Air Asia, Sriwijaya, Garuda Indonesia, Malindo and Lion Air.
Currently, 11 airlines serve dozens of these domestic and international flights at the airport each day, catering to an average of 8,000 passengers.
Pekanbaru's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has detected 633 hotspots across seven provinces in Sumatra.
The head of the BMKG, Pekanbaru Sugarin, explained that 25 hotspots were observed in Riau, 22 of which are believed to have caused land and forest fires.
"Three spots were spotted in Meranti, 12 spots in Indragiri Hilir, and seven in Indragiri Hulu," he said.
With hundreds of hotspots in Sumatra islands, some areas in the region are shrouded in thick smoke.
Currently, in Pelalawan, the visibility is around 200 meters, in Rengat 500 meters and in Dumai city 300 meters.
Earlier, thick haze had been hampering aerial water bombing operations being carried out by two helicopters operated by Riau's Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), an official stated.
"We kept ready two helicopters this morning, but the visibility range was around 500 meters, and it was impossible to fly in such conditions," noted Edwar Sanger, the regional disaster mitigation agency's chief.
The MI 171 and Sikorsky were the two helicopters kept on standby by the agency after another was sent to assist in the operations to extinguish forest fires in South Sumatra.
Edwar pointed out that both helicopters can only fly if the visibility reaches 1,500 meters.
The agency had planned to conduct water bombing operations on Tuesday in Riau's districts -- Meranti Isle, Indragiri Hilir, and Indragiri Hulu.
"Hopefully, the smog would recede, and we will be able to fly and immediately start putting out the fires before these spread further," Edwar noted.
Meanwhile, the agency is still relying on the ground team to put out the fires located in the three regions.
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