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Empty planes fly out of Thailand
Anti-government protesters have allowed 37 empty airliners to leave Bangkok’s besieged main airport after agreeing to a request by Thai authorities, officials said.
Anti-government protesters have allowed 37 empty airliners to leave Bangkok’s besieged main airport after agreeing to a request by Thai authorities, officials said on Monday.
A total of 88 aircraft had been stranded at Suvarnabhumi international airport since demonstrators stormed the terminal and forced it to close last Tuesday, an Airports of Thailand spokeswoman said.
“Thirty-seven aircraft have left Suvarnabhumi since the first aircraft of Siam GA (a regional airline) took off on Sunday evening,” the spokeswoman said.
“International airlines will have to contact us to take those stranded aircraft out of Suvarnabhumi.”
The spokeswoman said that of the original 88 planes, 29 belong to flag carrier Thai Airways, 16 to Thai AirAsia and 15 to
private-run Bangkok Airways.
The remaining 28 aircraft are from various other airlines, 12 of them belonging to the airlines of foreign countries.
No passengers were however allowed to leave through Suvarnabhumi, officials said.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy protest movement has refused to leave the airport, and the smaller Don Mueang domestic hub in Bangkok which it has occupied since Thursday, until the government resigns.
About 100,000 travellers have been stranded in Thailand by the protests, with the main exodus point so far being the Vietnam War-era U-Tapao naval base 190 kilometres southeast of Bangkok.
Thai authorities said 282 foreign tourists have sought medical treatment at a naval base from which travellers are being evacuated.
Most were suffering from complaints including headaches, vomiting, fainting, cold, muscle sprains, skin irritation and food poisoning, the Public Health Authority said in a statement.
Protesters move to besieged airports
Anti-government protesters camped at Thailand’s government seat were shifting tactics to join colleagues at Bangkok’s besieged airports on Monday as the politically paralysed country struggled with more than 300,000 stranded travellers.
A leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy said demonstrators will end their more than three-month sit-in at the prime minister’s office compound and move to both Bangkok airports, which they seized last week in their push to oust the government, severing all civilian flights in or out of the capital.
Thailand’s political crisis escalated on Sunday when some 10,000 pro-government activists converged on Bangkok to counter rival protesters who have forced the prime minister to run the country from outside the capital.
Alliance leader Chamlong Srimuang called on protesters who have the prime minister’s compound since August 26 to “move to the airports to support our people there.”
The move did not represent a softening of the protest group’s stance nor was it clear whether the three-month-old occupation of the compound was entirely over.