<![CDATA[This study examines the effects of smoke haze and visibility on flight operational performance at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Palembang. An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was employed. The quantitative phase involved 66 active aviation operational personnel, analyzed using multiple linear regression. The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with air traffic controllers, commercial pilots, airport duty managers, and aviation meteorologists, analyzed through systematic thematic coding using NVivo 14. Quantitative results indicate that smoke haze significantly increases perceived flight operational disruption (B = 0.744; β = 0.611; p < 0.001), whereas visibility has no independent significant effect after controlling for smoke haze (B = 0.261; β = 0.226; p = 0.103). Together, both variables explain 65.8% of variance (R² = 0.658; F = 60.639; p < 0.001). NVivo analysis identified four interconnected themes concerning operational impacts, visibility constraints, their interaction, and contextual conditions. This study uniquely integrates quantitative and qualitative evidence to demonstrate that smoke haze constitutes a systemic environmental hazard whose effects extend beyond visibility reduction, causing cascading disruptions across scheduling, aircraft rotation, passenger services, and stakeholder coordination. Findings highlight the importance of strengthened early-warning systems, operational preparedness, inter-agency coordination, and forest and land-fire prevention. This research contributes an integrated explanation of haze-related aviation disruption, offering actionable insights for airport management and aviation policymakers in haze-prone regions.]]>
