Visibility at Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport Reported to Have Improved

Flight activity at Sultan Syarif Kasim (SSK) II Airport in Pekanbaru continued to operate normally on Tuesday (18/8). Visibility, which had been limited in the morning, gradually improved as weather conditions developed.

General Manager of SSK II Airport Pekanbaru, Achmad, confirmed that flight operations remained normal. Weather monitoring is also being carried out continuously to maintain smooth flights.

“Flight activity is still normal so far,” said Achmad on Tuesday (18/8).

SSK II Airport continues to coordinate with BMKG and AirNav Indonesia to ensure weather conditions remain monitored and all flight safety procedures are carried out in accordance with regulations.

“We continue to monitor and coordinate with BMKG and AirNav. We implement all flight SOPs, including procedures in the event of visibility that disrupts flights,” he said.

Meanwhile, BMKG Pekanbaru forecaster Gita Dewi said that visibility, which had been limited in the morning, had shown improvement.

“The lowest visibility earlier was 500 metres, but it has started to improve to 3 kilometres and continues to increase,” she said.

The improvement continued to be visible in subsequent monitoring. At 10.30 WIB, visibility in Pekanbaru City was recorded at 7 kilometres with clear to cloudy weather conditions.

She explained that morning air conditions were influenced by fog and suspected smoke carried from the Pelalawan area. BMKG recorded a number of hotspots with moderate to high confidence levels in Kerumutan District.

“The wind direction is more dominant from the southeast to the south. This condition allows smoke from Pelalawan to be carried to Pekanbaru,” she explained.

Nevertheless, weather developments showed a better trend. At 10.00 WIB, the air temperature was recorded at 31 degrees Celsius with a wind speed of 14.8 kilometres per hour from the southeast. Based on BMKG’s hourly forecast, visibility is even expected to reach around 9 kilometres starting at 11.17 WIB and persist until the evening.

These conditions are considered supportive of smooth flight activity at SSK II Airport Pekanbaru. With consistent weather monitoring and cross-agency coordination, flight operations continue to run normally.