Flights at Rendani Return to Normal Amidst Haze

The Rendani Class II Airport Organising Unit (UPBU) in Manokwari, West Papua, has confirmed that commercial flights returned to normal on Monday (5/10), despite haze from forest and land fires (karhutla) still enveloping the area.

The Head of Rendani Class II UPBU, Herman Sujito, stated in Manokwari on Monday that two airlines are currently serving flights to and from Manokwari, as visibility levels now permit safe operations.

“Today, there are only two flights, and all are running normally because the visibility allows for landings,” said Herman.

He noted that flight activities two days prior, on Saturday (3/10) and Sunday (4/10), were forced into cancellations because haze from forest fires in other regions obstructed pilots’ visibility during landing approaches.

A flight from Jayapura to Manokwari on Saturday, which was scheduled to land around 12:00 WIT, had to be diverted to Ambon due to visibility dropping to only 500 metres. By the afternoon, conditions had not improved, leading the second flight to land in Sorong instead.

“Sunday was similar; flights from Sorong, Jayakura, Nabire, and Kaimana could not land because visibility was limited to only 3 kilometres,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Head of Emergency and Logistics at the West Papua Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Danang Tri Soesilo, explained that the haze covering Manokwari is also influenced by forest fires in South Papua Province and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Smoke drifting from South Papua and PNG has thickened the haze caused by local forest fires in several West Papua districts, including South Manokwari, Teluk Bintuni, Kaimana, and Fakfak.

“This also includes fires from Maybrat, Southwest Papua, the smoke of which has reached Manokwari,” he said.

According to data from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) as of 3 October 2026, the number of hotspots in South Papua reached 2,658, while West Papua recorded 1,294 hotspots.