Bangkok airports remain shut; flights to help stranded travelers get rerouted
International airlines that fly in and out of Bangkok airports are scheduling flights out of a military airport about 80 miles away from the Thai capital to help thousands of stranded tourists get home, according to flight information posted on the airlines’ websites.
Thousands of travelers have been stuck in Bangkok since anti-government protesters took over and shut down Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in the past two days.
The Thai government declared a state of emergency at the airports Thursday (Nov. 27) after People’s Alliance for Democracy demonstrators seized the sites and demanded new elections, according to a Los Angeles Times story. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat rejected those demands.
Singapore Airlines plans to fly two flights Saturday (Nov. 29) and two flights Sunday (Nov. 30) from Utapao airport, a military base being pressed into service for commercial flights, to Singapore. The airline says it will start with travelers who have tickets dated Nov. 26 and continue in date order to clear the backlog.
Regional carrier SilkAir also will be adding flights Saturday and Sunday from Phuket for passengers who left Bangkok via road. Added flights are being considered for cities such as Penang and Chiang Mai.
Thai Airways also will be operating out of U-Tapao and Phuket airports, though the website lists only inbound flights from Singapore; Bodhgaya, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Seoul, South Korea.
EVA Air will operate one flight each way between Taipei, Taiwan, and Utapao. China Airlines also is rerouting or canceling its flights to and from Bangkok.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand said in a statement that it has helped find hotel space for about 3,000 stranded passengers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
– Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer
[Photo: Anti-government protesters at Don Muang airport in Bangkok, Thailand; Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press]
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November 30th, 2008 at 8:02 am
This is bloody absurd. This is not protest and is Terrorism.
It is vcery clear that the Prime Ministers orders are not taken by the armed forces and the government has no control what so ever.
Ofcourse the army chief shoul;d be arrested immediately and replaced with another who understands the gravity of this issue.
Invading an International Airport for 5 days is not a joke. This is absolute irresponsibility of PDA, THAI Goverment and the Armed forces.
As this is a punishable terrorist act by the PDA , the gopvernment should immediately arrest the PDA chiefs and sentence them to death.
The crowd must be immediately vacated and this should be a lesson iunforgettable to all idiotic thais that they should never ever invade a economically important place ever hereafter