HAZE FORCES GARUDA FLIGHT'S DIVERSION TO PALEMBANG

Jambi, Southern Sumatra, Sept. 23 (ANTARA) - A Garuda Indonesia plane serving the Jakarta-Jambi route was forced to land at Palembang's Sultan Mahmud Badarudin II airport on Wednesday due to haze.

The plane was supposed to land at Jambi's Sultan Thaha Saifudin airport at 8.15 am local time, Dwi Putra Jaya, a junior manager at the airport said.

Wednesday morning's haze had reduced visibility at Jambi's airport to only 500 meters from the minimum normal visibility of 2,000 meters for pilots, he said.

Despite the haze, however, Sultan Thaha Saifudin airport was not closed as the haze disappeared a few minutes later, he said.

The haze also caused a delay of almost three hours in the arrival of a Lion Air flight at Jambi's airport, he said.

Other flights to and from Jambi by Batavia Air, Mandala Air, Sriwijaya Air, Lion Air and Kartika Air were not affected by the haze, he said.

Forest, bush and peatland fires have affected Sumatra and Kalimantan during the current El-Nino-induced drought.

In South Sumatra Province alone, more than 20 hectares of forest area have been gutted by fire during the current dry season.

South Sumatra province has around 1,483,662 hectares of peatland prone to fire.

Meanwhile, despite the increased number of home-bound travelers celebrating Idul Fitri or 'Lebaran' in their home towns in Jambi Province, there was no extra flight going to Jambi this year.