Wildfire Haze Disrupts Dozens of Flights Across Sumatra as Visibility Drops Below Safe Levels
Why It MattersRecurring seasonal haze across Sumatra highlights a visibility-driven operational risk that periodically disrupts regional airport schedules and forces diversions during fire season.
Worsening haze from forest and land fires forced airlines to delay, reschedule, divert and turn back multiple flights across Sumatra over several days as visibility fell below minimum operational thresholds.
At Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang, South Sumatra, five flights were delayed on Thursday morning after visibility dropped below the airport's minimum operational threshold of 600 metres. The affected flights included three departures bound for Jakarta and Pangkalpinang in the Bangka Belitung Islands, and two arrivals from Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Airport general manager Ahmad Syaugi Sahab said flights were held to ensure passenger and crew safety. The disruption followed a larger incident on 3 October, when haze affected 18 flights at the same airport under similar conditions.
In Pekanbaru, Riau province, two flights from Jakarta were unable to land at Sultan Syarif Kasim Airport on Wednesday morning when visibility fell to as low as 600 metres. A Lion Air flight returned to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 6:44 a.m. local time, while a Citilink flight was diverted to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, at 8:04 a.m. after circling over Pekanbaru waiting for conditions to improve. Airport executive general manager Achmad confirmed both incidents.
