Thai airports reopening as siege ends

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-04 07:54

Hundreds of Thai army troops looked for bombs and weapons as cleaning crews buffed and mopped the floors, part of an around-the-clock effort to reopen Thailand's international airport after a week-long shutdown.

Outside the main departure terminal at Suvarnabhumi international airport yesterday, the last anti-government protesters packed up their sleeping mats, took down their tents in front of the ticket counters and abandoned the noodle stands.

Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, the chairman of the Airports Authority of Thailand, said an initial inspection of the airport found no damage to the facility. He said workers were still checking the computer, communication and security systems but expected everything would be operational in a few days.

Protest leader Chamlong Srimuang and airport officials warmly shook hands and Chamlong bowed toward a Buddhist shrine featuring a portrait of the country's revered constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

It was an anticlimactic and surreal end to the crisis that started on Nov 25 when protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy stormed Survarnabhumi and later the domestic Don Muang airport in a bid to oust the government. Concerned authorities shut down both facilities, stranding more than 300,000 travelers.

The crisis peaked on Tuesday with the Constitutional Court finding Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's People's Power Party and two other political parties guilty of fraud in the December 2007 elections that brought the coalition to power. The alliance declared victory, saying its objective had been achieved.

Weerasak Kowsurat, the outgoing minister for tourism in Somchai's government, estimated around 230,000 foreign tourists remained stranded.

The airport building is not fully functional and authorities have not disclosed a timeline for when full-time operations are expected. But the runways and the control tower were being used for flights to land and take off.

The first commercial airliner - a flight by the national airline Thai Airways from the resort island of Phuket - landed at Suvarnabhumi just after 2 pm and the first departing flight bound for Sydney was due to leave at 5:25 pm.

Others were expected to follow, including at least three international flights just after midnight on Dec 5.

For now, passengers were arriving and departing through a Thai Airways facility located about 2 km from the main building. Departing passengers were being checked in at an exhibition center in Bangkok - five hours before their flight - and then bused to the airport.

Thai Airways said Don Muang airport will resume full operations today at 6 am, with 30 domestic flights departing each day.