Tabing Airport opens nighttime flights

JAKARTA (JP): After nearly two weeks of isolation, West Sumatra was again open to air transportation as Padang's Tabing Airport was opened yesterday evening.

The head of the province's transportation office Martunus Said told Antara that visibility around the airport was 3,600 meters in the evening or much better than the morning and afternoon visibility of just 400 to 2,000 meters.

"To restore air transportation services at Tabing Airport, we will from now on operate at night, ending more than two weeks of isolation," Martunus said.

Tabing Airport had been closed since Oct. 14 as visibility dropped to almost zero. Forest fires in the neighboring provinces of Jambi and South Sumatra had been blamed for the resulting thick haze.

The haze from brush and forest fires has severely disrupted operations at many airports in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Yesterday's decision to open the airport for evening flights was backed by the local office of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

An official at the agency said his office agreed that the airport could operate at night.

"This is a better step than having to wait for this situation (to return to normal), because West Sumatra has suffered quite big losses as a result of the haze," he said.

In Pekanbaru, Riau, Simpang Tiga Airport remained closed yesterday, extending the shutdown which began last week.

The city as a whole remained hazy as visibility remained less than 500 meters.

Despite aid from an international contingent, the brush and forest fires have not been entirely put out. And the fires continue as the drought continues to drag along.

Many predict that it will be the rain, which fell in some parts of the country this weekend, which will finally douse the fires.

There were hopeful signs the past couple of days as rains began to pour in some parts of the country. Officials here predict that the rainy season could start within a month.

But United Nations climate experts in Geneva were foreboding and said rains in Indonesia were likely to be suppressed further by the strong El Nio weather phenomenon.

The El Nio phenomenon is a warming of the Pacific Ocean that has wreaked havoc to global weather.

Reuters quoted climate scientists as warning that Indonesia should prepare for the worst.

"In Indonesia, rains could be suppressed for the next three months," Mike Coughlan, a senior climatologist at the World Meteorological Organization, said.

"That is the worst-case scenario. We have to consider the worst-case scenario, but we are not necessarily predicting that," Coughlan said.

Yet Coughlan said there was no sign of rain in scientific projections.

"There is nothing to indicate at this point in time that there would be any change in this pattern."

The ill winds of El Nio, blowing from east to west, are facing off the rain-carrying monsoon weather pattern moving from north to south, Coughlan said.

"We see a bit of a game -- the monsoon is attempting to spread south, but the intensity of the El Nio pattern is blocking it," he said.

"It may be more and more difficult for monsoons to dominate the El Nio pattern in Indonesia," Coughlan said. "The worst-case scenario is that the El Nio pattern wins out." (aan)

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Haze -- Page 5