All flights cancelled at Jambi Airport

Jambi, Sept 10 (Antara) - All flights slated to fly to and depart from the Sultan Taha Syaifuddin (STS) Airport in Jambi Province on Thursday were canceled due to increasingly dense haze in the region. "All flights have been canceled by the airlines, including Garuda Indonesia, LionAir, NamAir, and Citilink," the Chief Operating Unit of STS Jambi Airport, Parolan Simanjuntak, stated on Thursday. A total of 40 flights have been cancelled. "The airline, which has delayed their flights and is still following the daily progress for flight visibility is LionAir LNI 606," Simanjuntak said. He also explained that there are a number of airlines that have decided to cancelled their flights up to five days in advance, such as Garuda Indonesia, LionAir, and NamAir. "Ten flights were already canceled in advance 10 days ahead," he added. The airlines that have decided to cancel flights for the next few days are Garuda Indonesia, whose flights GA 130-13, GA 128-129 and GA 7114-7115 stand cancelled. Meanwhile, the Meteorologist Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) of Jambi reported that visibility in the region has dropped to below 1,000 meters, with the minimum visibility pegged at only 400 meters. The ideal visibility for aircraft taking off and landing is 2,200 meters. "By this morning, not a single plane had landed at the Sulthan Thaha Airport in Jambi due to the thick smoke which has been blanketing the airport," BMKG weather forecaster for Jambi, Gumilang Denadyan, confirmed. As many as 13 hotspots were detected and have spread across Jambi Province, Denadyan added.