PAD allows 88 flights out - without passengers

[jinks]

BANGKOK POST :-

The leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy have agreed to allow 88 grounded aircraft to fly out of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The planes were stranded when they flew in as the PAD occupied the international airport last Tuesday night. Only a handful of passengers have been allowed to leave since then.

The agreement came after hours of negotiations between protest leaders and Airports of Thailand, the airport's owner and operator.

The first of the 88 aircraft already left Suvarnabhumi shortly after dark on Sunday evening.

Under the agreement, Thai Airways International and foreign airlines can fly to airports in other provinces of the country to help evacuate tourists who have been stranded for nearly a week by the protesters.

There is no sign the PAD demonstrators will leave the airport.


Some countries help their citizens, some do not

Spain is to send planes to repatriate more than 500 Spaniards stranded in Thailand due to the closure of Bangkok's airports.

But stranded British tourists face uncertainty. Their foreign office said it would not charter flights to evacuate those unable to get home.

The Philippines announced on Saturday that it would charter buses to take Filipinos from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, where they would get transportation home.''

And more than 260 stranded Russian tourists left for home on Sunday thanks to a flight by Thai Airways International from U-Tapao air base direct to Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the Russian embassy to Thailand said.

In a statement on Sunday the Spanish Foreign Ministry said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero coordinated the operation with the foreign and defence ministries.

Two air force aircraft and one plane belonging to airline Iberworld are to fly to Thailand "as soon as possible," the statement said. It did not specify where they will land.

State broadcaster TVE cites Spain's ambassador in Thailand, Juan Manuel Lopez Nadal, as saying the evacuation could begin on Monday.

[jolyjacktar]

Yep that just about sums the British labour government up. I dont think anyone was suprised by that action. They were slow to help the brits durring the sunami, and it was left up to other foriegn embassys to do things for the first day or 2. Mind you theyve spent all the tax payers money on bloody private banks

[Beachlover]

88 aircraft... wow, that would've been costing airlines a fortune. It's probably already costing them collectively over USD $600 million to have so many aircraft trapped for over a week.

[allieb]

Yep that just about sums the British labour government up. I dont think anyone was suprised by that action. They were slow to help the brits durring the sunami, and it was left up to other foriegn embassys to do things for the first day or 2. Mind you theyve spent all the tax payers money on bloody private banks

Slow to help during the Tsunami. The British Ambassador was one of the first foreign diplomats on the scene... check the records, new reports etc from that time.

The British government has had Thailand on a list of places to avoid unless nescessary for quite a while now. Check the Foreign Office website. So for those who decided to go anyway they made a wrong desision. Why should the British Government take the heat for their desisions. Nobody is stopping these people from taking land transport to neighboring countries and getting home from there unless they don't have the funds. If the Government spend money on these people, its the same as spending taxpayers money on banks who made foolish desisions. I love Thailand but for the past 6 months or so I have decided to give it a wide berth until things settle down. What stranded passengers are getting now is 2,000 Baht a day from the Thai Government and t5he airlines are doing their best to get booked passengers home from U Tapo. If BA isn't doing this then don't blame the government its a private company.

[jolyjacktar]

NO fattman i suggest you get the facts right. I was there then and all we had was the reps from the sweedish Embassy to help us, not a sign of any British diplomat for a long time. Of course the reports from the British embassy will say that because they dont want to look bad. I know for weeks afterwards there were scaving attacks on how slow the British were to be on the scene.

[Hmmm]

BANGKOK POST :-
But stranded British tourists face uncertainty. Their foreign office said it would not charter flights to evacuate those unable to get home.


Qantas is supposedly flying Qantas and BA passengers out of Phuket to Singapore tonight (although one flight is unlikely to be enough). They're being bussed from Bangkok. The two airlines basically operate as one on the UK-Asia-Australia routes. The long hauls to London that normally stop in BKK are all flying via Singapore now.

Re: PAD allows 88 flights out - without passengers

Jinx:

Does anyone know how many passengers are at the SVP airport? Are there passengers being detained? How many tourists are the PAD detaining at the airport?

JJtar,

I think you are falling for some of the publicity that is being handed out. Even if there were some sort of obligation for any country to mount a military or civilian operation to fly their citizens home from holiday, when they are in no danger/discomfort and having their living expenses paid for, it is totally impractical if not impossible. The airports which are open are running at full capacity already, so any additional flights would only result in others being delayed or cancelled - totally pointless.

Ponbkk: 0

[fedssocr]

I wonder if travel insurance will pay any claims from this. I have a policy and intend to try and collect something once I get home.

If you really need to get out of the country Phuket seems to be the best choice. Flights are being added to SIN and elsewhere. I just booked a ticket for Wednesday on Silk Air that was much cheaper than Tiger Airways. You could book a coach seat one way on Silk for US$235 to SIN. Tiger wants over $400. From there I am able to use my original United Airlines ticket to fly home.

Apparently LH is moving their operation to Phuket. And SAS is also flying from there. Air France is also adding a flight there.

I wonder if travel insurance will pay any claims from this. I have a policy and intend to try and collect something once I get home.I would think that most insurance companies would have exclusions for "civil unrest" or something similar.I know the travel insurance company associated with the bank I work for here in Singapore won't be paying out any claims as civil unrest is specifically excluded from their policies. One of the guys in insurance says that travel insurance is the easiest money to make; they can charge huge premiums and there are very few claims. Apparently that's why travel agents like selling it so much. Their commissions are supposed to be around 40% of the premium.

So what the benefit in travel insurance ...

Maybe the resident salesman will tell you; or maybe not!