JAMBI AIRPORT CLOSED FOR TWO HOURS DUE TO HAZE

Jambi, southern Sumatra, Sept. 24 (ANTARA) - Sultan Thaha Saifudin (STS) Airport in Jambi was closed for two hours from 7 am to 9 am local time, Thursday, because of haze.

Due to the haze, a Garuda plane was again forced to postpone its landing at STS Airport from 8.15 am local time to 11 am, Dwi Putra Jaya, a junior manager at the airport said here on Thursday.

"Yesterday, a Garuda Indonesia plane serving the Jakarta-Jambi route was forced to land at Palembang's Sultan Mahmud Badarudin II airport, and finally land in Jambi at 11 am, also due to haze" he said.

Thursday morning's haze reduced visibility at Jambi's airport to only 1,000 meters from the minimum normal visibility of 2,000 meters for pilots, he said.

The haze also caused a delay of almost two hours from 7.15 am to 9 am, in the departure of a Lion Air flight at Jambi's airport to Jakarta, he said.

The air of Jambi was clear from the haze at 9 am local and the visibility was back to normal, namely above 3,000 meters. At 11 am, the visibility for pilot reached 5,000 meters, and the flight schedules at the Jambi airport went normally.

Other flights to and from Jambi by Batavia Air, Mandala Air, Sriwijaya Air, Lion Air and Kartika Air were not affected by the haze, as their flight schedules were above 9 am local time, he said.