Anti-government protesters at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport have allowed airlines to remove dozens of empty planes.
Around 30 planes have been flown to other airports in Thailand and will be used to ferry the 100,000 stranded travellers out of the country, with airport officials hoping that another 50 would be allowed to leave today (December 1).
The People’s Alliance for Democracy has closed the 125,000 passenger-a-day airport for almost a week in its campaign to remove Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
While planes were jetting out of the blockade, the general manager of the $4 billion airport explained that restarting services from the base will take at least a week, because of security and IT system checks.
This timeline suggests that the airport will be closed until December 11 at the very least. A Foreign Office spokesman has said that British Embassy staff is regularly visiting British nationals stuck in Bangkok and providing consular help.
