Articles | BA flies Thai tourists home

Thailand: BA flies tourists home

Published: Friday, 5 December 2008, 9:31AM

More tourists stranded in Thailand are to arrive home on the first British Airways flight since anti-government protests closed the country's main international airport.

British Airways said a relief flight carrying about 160 passengers would land at Heathrow airport.

The airline sent an empty plane to pick up customers from Phuket in southern Thailand.

A BA spokesman said: "We have laid on a special flight from Phuket to Heathrow for our customers who have been unable to travel.

"It is a 272-seater aircraft with about 160 passengers on board. We bussed customers from Bangkok down to Phuket so that they can catch the flight."

The spokesman said the flight was not full because the airline's partner Qantas had already flown passengers home via Singapore.

Thailand has officially reopened its main international airport though it was only running at about 50 per cent capacity and scores of flights have been cancelled.

About 5,000 Britons were estimated to have been stuck in Thailand following the occupation by anti-government protesters of the main international Suvarnabhumi airport on November 25 and the smaller Don Muang airport a day later.

The situation has eased after Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was forced from office by Thailand's Constitutional Court.

Mr Somchai was banned from politics for five years.

Protesters accused him of being a proxy of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, their original target.