Airlines slowly resume Bangkok flights
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Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi international airport has restarted limited flights after anti-government protesters ended an eight-day blockade of the hub, The Nation has reported. A Thai Airways flight to Sydney carrying 388 passengers yesterday became the first international flight in a week to leave Bangkok’s main airport since the siege began. Overnight, THAI reportedly operated six international services to Japan, Australia, India, Germany, South Korea and Denmark.
Domestic Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways flights began trickling into Suvarnabhumi from yesterday afternoon, while a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight from Amman also arrived. Thai AirAsia’s CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld, was quoted as saying that his low-cost carrier would resume all 90 daily flights from Suvarnabhumi from today, according to The Nation. Other major airlines, including Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific said yesterday that they’ll restart flights to Bangkok once Thai officials certify the airport is ready, according to a Bloomberg report.
Over at Bangkok’s smaller Don Mueang airport, Thai domestic carriers, Nok Air and One-Two-Go, said they would resume operations this morning.
Meanwhile, Airports of Thailand (AoT) has said it is doing everything possible to accelerate the resumption of normal services to and from Bangkok. “We will operate from the areas that are ready first,” Bloomberg quoted AoT Chairman, Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, as saying in an interview. “We will try to accelerate the opening as much as we can. I want to do it within the next two days, but every system must meet the standards before the opening.”
Some major airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have been reported saying they will only resume flights to Suvarnabhumi when the airport declares itself ready. Some airlines are still thought to be concerned over potential security risks at the facility.
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