"Two flights were delayed this morning, respectively from Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia," Taslim, the head of the SSK II airport, said here Friday.
The visibility dropped drastically in the morning, while the minimal visibility for air safety was 1,000 meters, he said.
The two flights scheduled to fly to Jakarta were delayed for a half hour due to the haze, he said.
According to the Pekanbaru meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency, the visibility drooped to only 150 meters in the morning at around 6.30 am local time.
Based on the NOAA 18 Satellite, there were nine hotspots in Riau on Friday morning, consisting of three in Rokan Hilir, four in Rokan Hulu, one in Siak , and another in Kampar districts.
Two days ago, Riau had 46 hotspots of forest, peat and plantation fires.
Meanwhile, Merpati Airways` MA 60 flight serving Medan-Dumai route was delayed for five hours due to haze hanging over Pinang Kampai airport, in Dumai, on Friday morning.
The visibility at the airport was only 1,500 meters, forcing Merpati to delay its flight from Medan to Dumai for five hours, Irvan, head of the Pinang Kampai airport, Dumai, Riau Province, said Dumai, Friday.
The delay was at the initiative of the plane`s pilot to prevent such a plane incident in Kaimana waters, West Papua recently.
"We at the Pinang Kampai airport this morning confirmed that the weather in Dumai was bad. After receiving the weather report, we informed Merpati. They later decided to postpone the flight schedule from Medan," he said. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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