Tourism Indochina: Protestors leave Bangkok airports as Thai govt dissolved

Tourism Indochina: Protestors leave Bangkok airports as Thai govt dissolved

(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2008-12-03):

Protestors blockading the two main Bangkok airports have agreed to step down after a Thai court yesterday afternoon found the Prime Minister guilty of election fraud, and as such dissolved his entire cabinet.

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have issued a statement that they will now “allow” flights to be reinstated, but that they will maintain vigilant, and threatened to retake control if the new government looked to be another “puppet regime”.

Still, it is unknown when the main hub of Suvarnabhumi will be fully operational for international flights, as airport officials now have the difficult task of rechecking all equipment and security, as well as cataloguing all damages.

Dedicated cargo flights already have authorisation to restart operations from BKK

Earlier, Serirat Prasutanont, Airports of Thailand (AoT) Acting Director, had said that the clean-up process would take nearly a fortnight, and as such the airport would re-open on the 15th of December.

Since then the AoT have reissued statements, saying that there wasn’t as much damage as they had thought, and that full services could resume much more quickly, though how quickly is still uncertain.

With differing officials giving differing opening dates from as soon as today, to Tuesday the 9th of December, no one is quite sure when the airport will be ready to send out flights. Incoming flights on the other hand are expected within 24 hours.

At the moment, the 5th of December is a popular day for a reopen as it’s the Thai King’s birthday; and as such Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, AoT Chairman has stated that resuming operations on Friday could be a birthday present for the King.

AoT have estimated that the closure of Suvarnabhumi since the 25th of November has cost them some US$1 million.

Protestors have promised to leave the airport by 10am local time today.

Regional airports to take pressure of U-Tapao

With the shutdown of BKK and DMK, a nearby military base has been the scene of most flights in and out of the capital, but due to its small size, the base has been strained with tens of thousands of passengers eager to get out.

Regional airports could help out whilst BKK is reinstated, said officials from the Transport Ministry, and already airports like Chiang Mai and Phuket have seen special flights operating.

Hua Hin, another regional airport, started serving international flights on Monday, with Bangkok Airways putting on additional charter flights to Singapore and Hong Kong.

International governments have been working to extract their nationals from Bangkok, with Australia, China, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Spain and France already completing several chartered flights.

While New Zealand has become the first country to send in military aid to help evacuate its stranded nationals, with the departure last night of an Air Force Hercules bound for Bangkok.

Britain’s Foreign Office on the other hand has decided not to send charter flights in for its 6,000 or so nationals stranded in Thailand.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/