Adi Soemarmo reopens after being closed for 6 days

JAKARTA. Adi Soemarmo Airport, Surakarta, Central Java, reopened on Thursday morning, operating both regional and international flights after being closed for six days due to a blanket of volcanic ash from Mount Kelud covering the airport grounds.

Garuda Indonesia airplane flight GA 221 heading from Surakarta to Jakarta opened up the airport’s operation taking 89 people on board.

According to Adi Soemarmo Airport duty manager, Sugeng Budiyono, the airport resumed operations at 7 a.m.

Lion Air flied second with 180 people on board heading towards Jakarta followed by Sriwijaya Air taking with 137 people.

Sugeng disclosed there would be 25 flights going in and out as the airport reopened, comprising 17 arrivals and eight departure. Singapore, Malaysia, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin and Jakarta were among the locations for outbound and incoming flights.

The volcanic ash clean-up was completed on Wednesday.

According to Sugeng, workers finished sweeping the volcanic dust off the runways on late Wednesday evening.

“The dust was collected on the borders of the runways and was disposed at a distant location . If the dust was not disposed quickly it would dry and return to disrupt landing sites,” Sugeng said as quoted by tribunnews.com.  (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)