Rizal Harahap, The Jakarta Post 1 Jul 15;
A decrease in visibility due to haze over Dumai city, Riau, has disrupted flight schedules at Pinang Kampai Airport for the last three days.
Airport head Catur Hargowo said that visibility of only 2 kilometers on Tuesday had forced an aircraft operated by Transnusa to postpone landing for about 30 minutes from its scheduled arrival of 8:30 a.m. local time.
“It’s fortunate that the departure scheduled for 9:30 a.m. for the same aircraft was not disrupted by haze,” Catur told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, adding that low visibility only occurred in the morning and normal visibility of 4 kilometers eventually returned later in the day thanks to wind.
The same flight delays also occurred on Monday and Sunday.
“Pilots only take off when the visibility in Pinang Kampai is 4 kilometers as required by the standard operating procedures,” Catur said.
He added that other airports in Pekanbaru and in many major cities in Indonesia could accommodate landing with visibility of only 700 meters because of supporting equipment including runway lights and radar.
In Pinang Kampai, pilots depended only on runway markers and the control tower’s guidance due to the absence of additional equipment, he added.
Catur, however, said that haze had not affected passenger numbers.
He expressed hope that the government would extinguish the land fires soon, both in Dumai and neighboring regencies, so that haze would no longer disrupt flights.
“The haze in the meantime only causes delays, but if nothing is done about it, more serious conditions will prevail next week meaning we may be forced to close down the operation of the airport,” said Catur.
Riau Provincial Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Edwar Sanger said that apart from Dumai, mild haze had also affected Pekanbaru, Bengkalis, Pelalawan and Rokan Hilir. The haze also came partly from neighboring provinces.
“Forest and land fires also hit Jambi and South Sumatra provinces. The haze is reaching Riau thanks to the wind,” Edwar said, adding that efforts to extinguish the fires were continuing.
Based on data collected by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Pekanbaru station from the Terra and Aqua satellites, two hotspots were detected in Dumai on Tuesday.
Other hotspots were found in the neighboring regencies of Bengkalis, Siak, Rokan Hilir and Meranti Islands.
“In total there were 45 hotspots across Riau with the biggest number of hotspots of 17 found in Pelalawan regency,” the station’s data and information section head Slamet Riyadi said.
Of the 45 hotspots, Slamet said, 27 were indicated as fire spots with a reliability level of over 70 percent. Of the fire spots, 13 were in Pelalawan, 11 in Bengkalis, two in Dumai and one in Indragiri Hulu.
Slamet blamed the situation on a lack of rain and high air temperatures.
Islands in focus: Air quality, visibility continue to drop in Riau
The Jakarta Post 2 Jul 15;
Haze from land and forest fires in Riau covering the province over the past several days has resulted in declines in air quality and visibility in a number of regions.
On Wednesday, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency’s (BMKG) Pekanbaru station, for example, detected 60 hotspots in nine regencies and municipalities across the province. Visibility in Pekanbaru, the province’s capital city, meanwhile, was recorded at only 1 kilometer, compared to Dumai’s 7 km and Pelalawan and Rengat’s 3 km.
“The drop in visibility in Pekanbaru has been followed by a decline in air quality. The Air Pollution Standard Index (PSI) board in the city shows that the current air quality is categorized as unhealthy, as the index has reached beyond 100 on the pollutant standards index [PSI],” the station’s data and information section head Slamet Riyadi said.
Declining visibility around the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru on Wednesday morning also led to the rerouting of Citilink flight QG 936 from Jakarta to Pekanbaru to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, Riau Islands.
