Smoke Disturbs Flights and economic

A thick smoke resulted from forest fire and land clearing has hampered flight in Riau province of Sumatra island due to low visibility China's Xinhua news agency reported Monday.A plane operated by Pelita Air Service failed to land on an airport in Dumai of the province Monday morning and was forced to go to another airport, an official of the airport in charge of weather surveillance Tarman Sembiring said.
Pelita Air Service plane could not land on airport in Dumai because of the smoke this morning. It went to Sutan Syarif Kasim airport, he told Xinhua from the province by phone.
Visibility at Dumai decreased to over 500 meters in the morning, weather observation official of the provincial meteorology agency Sanya Gautama said.The figure was far below the lowest limit for flight which was 1,000 meters, said Sembiring.
The airport in Dumai was closed to all flights up to 11:45 Jakarta time 0445 GMT, he said, adding that it opened again when the visibility increased up to more than 1,000 meters.
The number of hot spots reached 90 in the province and its surrounding areas Monday, lower than 193 Sunday,Gautama told Xinhua by phone from the province.Forest fire resulted from land clearing exercise regularly occurred in Sumatra and Borneo islands, resulting in smoke spreading up to neighbouring countries.
The smoke has often caused economic disruption by disturbing tourism and transport.In 1997/8, the smoke has led to billions of U.S. dollars in losses, which then triggered the signing of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but Indonesia has yet to ratify the agreement.