REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The haze emanating from forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan harms not only the locals and the environment, but has also affected the financial performance of airways and state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II.

PT Angkasa Pura II has suffered an estimated loss of Rp30 billion during the past month due to the haze, PT Angkasa Pura II President Director Budi Karya Sumadi said in Padangpariaman, West Sumatra on October 27.

Some three thousand flights were affected over the same period due to the haze, he stated.

The data on flight cancellations and delays were collected from September 1 to October 10, 2015.

"The worst hit airports are in Jambi and Pekanbaru followed by Pontianak. Other affected airports include Padang and Palembang as well as Kualanamu in Medan," he said.

The operations at Sultan Syarif Kasim (SSK) II International Airport of Pekanbaru, Riau Province, for instance, have frequently been shut down.

On October 19, the visibility dropped to 100 meters in the morning and improved to 400 meters by noon, forcing cancellations of more than 60 flights to and from Pekanbaru.

"From morning till noon today, no aircraft could fly. The airport's operations are paralyzed again, after they nearly came to a standstill yesterday," Hasnan Siregar, the SSK II airport's duty manager, noted on October 19.

Referring to the crowd of passengers at airports due to delayed and cancelled flights, Sumadi said he would remind the public that the delay and cancellation of flights is a fact and these things do happen in the country.

"We will operate to the maximum capacity the airports which are still active, such as Padang, Palembang, and Kualanamu, by equipping them with better facilities," the PT Angkasa Pura II chief said.

In the long run, the company will conduct research to find out the possibility of planes taking off and landing in areas shrouded by haze, he said.

PT Angkasa Pura II will improve the lighting system and control tower communication at various airports to enable aircraft to land and take off despite the haze reducing visibility to a certain distance.

The company will study whether a plane can take off and land even when the visibility is 1,000 meters, instead of 1,500 meters as required now, he said, citing an example.

In the meantime, Indonesia's flag carrier Garuda was forced to cancel some two thousand flights up to September due to the haze, President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia M Arif Wibowo said recently.

Citilink, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, cancelled 600 flights, affecting 120 thousand passengers.

The effect was significant because it caused revenue as well as opportunity losses, he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Indonesian National Air Carriers (Inaca).

PT Kalstar Aviation has also been significantly affected by the haze disaster because 90 percent of the airlines' flight routes are in cities on the Kalimantan Island, the company?s Marketing Manager Mochammad Zainuddin said.

Some one thousand flights were cancelled, impacting nearly 120 thousand passengers, he said.

"The haze has been increasing with visibility dropping to 100 or 200 meters, forcing cancellation of flights," he remarked.

His company suffered losses worth billions of rupiahs because the flight frequency decreased from 70 flights a day to only 20 flights.

"Our flights have been affected by up to 60-70 percent. Our target was to serve 1.5 million passengers until the end of this year, but that has dropped to 1.3 million passengers," he noted.

In fact, forest fires not only hit Sumatra and Kalimantan, but also parts of Sulawesi, Papua, and Java Islands.

Some airports in Papua and Sulawesi have also been affected by the haze, although it is not as bad as those on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

On the island of Papua, for instance, the airports of Timika in Papua Province and Manokwari in West Papua Province, were recently shut down temporarily due to the smog from the forest fires.

Garuda Indonesia Airways cancelled flights at the two airports as the haze from the forest fires significantly reduced visibility in the areas, Manager of Garuda Indonesia's Jayapura office Wahyudi told Antara, on Oct. 18.

The Papua meteorology office recorded 40 hotspots indicating forest fires particularly in the districts of Mappi and Merauke, on that date.

Since October 15, Garuda had cancelled flights in the Moses Kilangin Airport in Timika, he said.

Garuda was also forced to cancel flights in the Rendani Airport in Manokwari on October 18 and 19, according to him.

On Sulawesi Island, North Maluku's Babullah Airport was shut down on October 22, due to a thick haze shrouding the airport area.

The haze blanketing the airport had reduced visibility to 800 meters, preventing planes from landing and taking off, the Head of the Babullah Airport, Rasburhany said.

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