Indonesia's flag-carrier airline Garuda Indonesia decided to cancel its
regular flights from and to Aceh province starting on Sunday following the
closure of Iskandar Muda airport in Banda Aceh, the capital city of the province
as of 9 a.m., its spokesman said.
"The canceled flights include hajj flights from Banda Aceh. We will establish
coordination with related sides for the cancellations till the reopening of the
airport," Pujobroto, head of PT Garuda Indonesia's communications division was
quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency here Sunday.
The Garuda company also decided to cancel GA-192 flight from Medan, the
capital city of North Sumatera province to Banda Aceh (Aceh) on Sunday.
GA-192 was scheduled for take-off from Medan at 12:20 local time and slated
for arrival in Banda Aceh at 13:30.
The quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale jolted sea areas northwest of
Indonesia's Sumatra Sunday morning, the most powerfulrecorded in 40 years.
According to the State Seismological Bureau of China, the epicenter of the
quake is 30 kilometers from the coast, approximately 300 kilometers from Medan
and 200 kilometers from Banda Aceh.
The death toll of Sunday tidal wave devastation which hit coastal areas in
Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia as well as Indonesia had crossed 6,000 mark
by press time.
