Merpati cancels Jambi flights

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines will extend the cancellation of its Jambi-Jakarta flights until Sept. 30, due to the thick haze shrouding Jambi's Sultan Thaha airport, Antara reported yesterday.

Merpati's district manager for Jambi Ahmad Fauzi said his office had canceled at least 67 flights, resulting in an estimated Rp 800 million ($266,000) loss to the company.

The cancellation of the Jambi-Jakarta route and Jambi-Batam route has been carried out since early this month after the Sultan Thaha airport was forced to close due to thick haze.

The airline operates several Fokker-28s, each with a 80-seat capacity, to serve the Jambi-Jakarta route twice a day and Jambi- Batam route twice a week.

The thick haze has also forced PT Mandala Airlines, a private national airlines, to temporarily suspend its Jambi-Jakarta service. The airline's F-28 aircraft flies the route once a day.

"We have not sold any Jakarta-Jambi tickets since early September," a member of staff at Mandala's representative office in Jambi said.

Since the airport's closing, flights to Jakarta have been redirected via Palembang, 280 kilometers from Jambi.

Poor visibility from the thick smoke caused by forest fires has been blamed for the cancellation or delay of more than 1,000 flights into and out of nine airports in Indonesia in the past three months. (08)