Fresh haze disrupts flight in East Kalimantan airport

BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Haze from forest fires has caused minor disruptions in flight schedules at Sepinggan Airport over the past few days, an official has said.

Agus Mulyono, an official in the airport's control tower, said Saturday that morning haze had reduced the visibility around the airport to 700 meters on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.

"Several morning flights to and from Balikpapan were delayed. They resumed after 12 noon when visibility had gradually improved," Agus told The Jakarta Post.

Officials blame a lack of rain for the reemergence of the forest fires affecting the Bukit Soeharto forest reserve.

Last year, forest fires forced the cancellation of 6,356 flights in 27 airports throughout the country because of poor visibility, resulting in an estimated financial loss of Rp 49.34 billion.

On Friday and Saturday, East Kalimantan was only "a little hazy" with flights continuing on schedule, Agus added.

Another tower supervisor, Sentot Srimularta, told the Post that the situation was "normal" yesterday with visibility returning to a normal level of 5,000 meters.

"But pilots informed us that there had been several fires spotted from above," Sentot said.

"Smoke has been blowing in from the west," he added.

Bukit Soeharto, a 61,000 hectare forest reserve is located about 38 kilometers west of here.

Last week, Deputy Governor Suwarna Abdul Fatah, who coordinated the provincial natural disaster management board, said the 70 hectares of land ravaged by the recent drought- induced fires included rubber plantations, dry savannas and brush forests along the Samarinda-Balikpapan highway.

Suwarna said that four hectares of a 15-hectare forest reserve in Karang Joang village 20 kilometers north of here, near the Manggar and Wei rivers, had also caught on fire last week.

Suwarna added the board had declared the province was on "full alert" due to the imminent threat of forest fires. (42)