Malaysia's budget airline Firefly has extended its suspension of flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore through Wednesday as smoke from fires in Indonesia continues to blanket the region.
The announcement came as IQAir, which tracks air quality, ranked Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur as the world's two most polluted cities on Tuesday.
In a statement, Firefly said flights between Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) near Kuala Lumpur and Singapore's Seletar Airport (XSP) would be cancelled through Wednesday due to "weather conditions and haze." The carrier described the move as a "proactive safety measure."
The fires, mainly on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, are the country's most intense in 11 years. They have been fuelled by El Nino, a weather pattern forecast to be among the strongest in four decades.
IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company, said Singapore's air quality index stood at 199 on Tuesday, while Kuala Lumpur's was 183. Readings above 150 are generally considered harmful to health, and above 300 are classified as hazardous.
Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Aviation Group, which also owns Malaysia Airlines, first announced the cancellations on Oct 10, citing "low visibility" caused by the haze. It said affected passengers were being rebooked onto Malaysia Airlines flights between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Singapore's Changi Airport, subject to availability.
Singapore's government has relaunched a scheme to help cover the cost of treating haze-related illnesses, the first time since 2015, when smoke from Indonesian fires shrouded the region for weeks.
In Malaysia, schools in most states reopened on Tuesday as air quality improved slightly, but remained closed in three states, one federal territory and several districts.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said on Monday that he would push for stronger regional mechanisms when ASEAN foreign ministers meet next month.
"We already have an ASEAN mechanism on disasters, but the haze is not included or classified as a disaster," he told reporters in Sepang, according to Malaysia's Bernama news agency.
The Philippines, which holds this year's ASEAN chairmanship, confirmed the issue would be on the agenda. "The matter is on the agenda," Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Dominic Xavier Imperial said of the November meeting, which precedes the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila.
Foreign Minister Mohamad said Indonesia had deployed about 60,000 personnel to fight the fires, but thick smoke had grounded 34 aircraft, including fixed-wing planes and helicopters. Remote terrain and limited water sources were also hampering the effort, he said, while cloud seeding could not be carried out without suitable rain clouds. He acknowledged Indonesia's efforts but urged more effective action, citing the impact on Malaysian communities.
