UPDATES: Flights / Normal Operations Resume at Bangkok Airports

The anti-government protestors that had been holding Bangkok's two major airports - Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang - as well as Thailand's tourism industry and image under siege, returned the airports to the official authorities on Wednesday, after having caused enormous damage to the Thai economy.

Flights are however gradually returning to normal at Suvarnabumhi, but it is extremely important that passengers check with their airline about any new check-in procedures, locations etc.

It will take the airports some time before they can fully resume operations. For airlines, there is also the complication of newly scheduled and confirmed flights to other areas of Thailand, giving priority to stranded passengers, and those passengers that should have been leaving around this time anyway etc

Once we receive more confirmation of the flights in or out of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang, their dates etc, we will update this page. 

SUVARNABHUMI FLIGHT UPDATES

At 24.00 hrs (midnight) on 4 December 2008,THAI closed all check-in counters at BITEC in Bangkok. All passengers flying from Suvarnabhumi now must check-in at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

- Etihad Airways today resumes its twice a day flight programme between Abu Dhabi and Bangkok. To meet the demand from travellers stranded due to the recent civil unrest in Thailand, Etihad will also operate additional charter flights until Monday 8 December from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi which will ensure Etihad can fly more than 3,000 passengers in the next three days from the Thai capital.

Etihad has already flown six special relief flights from U-Tapao airport in Thailand since it suspended its Bangkok services on Wednesday 26 November. These flights have carried more than 2,500 travellers, many of whom had onward connections to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

- Jetstar Asia will be recommencing its Bangkok services to embark and disembark at Suvarnabhumi Airport from the evening of Friday, 5 December 2008. The airline's flight schedule is: SIN-BKK 3K 513 departs 19:10 pm to arrive 20:35 and BKK-SIN 3K 514 departs 21:15 to arrive 00:30.

- Jet Airways is to resume one commercial flight from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport from 5 December onwards. The flight 9W64/63 departs Bangkok for Delhi at 16:55 for an arrival in the Indian city at 18:05. All Jet Airways’ flights will be operating as normal out of Suvarnabhumi Airport from 6 December 2008.

Jet Airways passengers whose flights were cancelled due to the closure of Suvarnabhumi can rebook their tickets at the Jet Airways Bangkok office by calling 02 696 8980 or 02 696 8975-8. Jet Airways provided relief flights for more than 1500 passengers flying to India from the small airport at U-Tapao near Pattaya.

Jet Airways has waived cancellation/reissue charges on all confirmed tickets issued for travel into and out of Bangkok on Jet Airways flights from the time the airport closed on 25/26 November up to the travel date of 5 December 2008, and will allow involuntary rerouting without any penalties/additional charges for customers affected by its cancelled flights.

- Cathay Pacific will resume its flights to Bangkok today, Friday, 5 December. The airline will operate four flights from Hong Kong to Bangkok and three flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong daily on Friday and Saturday, 5 and 6 December.

- AirAsia will resume its commercial flights to and from the Thai capital via Suvarnabhumi on Friday 5 December 2008.

- At Don Muang Airport Thai Airways International has operated its domestic flight operations since 4 December 2008. The airline is requesting all passengers traveling from Don Muang to check-in at the Domestic Terminal of the airport. Today, 5 December 2008, THAI will operate 9 inbound domestic flights and 9 outbound domestic flights.

- At Suvarnabhumi International Airport Thai Airways International will resume normal flight operations at Suvarnabhumi International Airport commencing Friday, 5 December 2008 from 11.00 hrs onwards. The airline is requesting passengers to check-in at the Terminal, 4th floor, Suvarnabhumi International Airport, at least 3 hours prior to flight departure. THAI will operate 47 outbound international flights, 7 inbound domestic flights and 7 outbound domestic flights from Suvarnabhumi International Airport today.

- Bangkok Airways is re-opening its check-in counter (Row F) for all outbound flights leaving Suvarnabhumi Airport on 5 December from 12:00 (midday) onwards. Passengers traveling on any earlier flights are requested to check in at the airline’s head office at , 99 Vibhavadirangsit Road. As of December 5th, the airline will operate 55 flights in total (30 inbound and 25 outbound), on domestic and international routes from Suvarnabhumi Airport.

- Finnair's scheduled flights from Helsinki to Bangkok resumed Thursday, 4 December. The service will return to the regular timetable starting with the 23.55 flight from Helsinki. Seats on this week’s Bangkok flights can be reserved primarily by the original passengers of the flights, but Finnair says there is also space on the flights for new reservations. Passengers wishing to make a reservation on these flights, are requested to contact Finnair asap.

Remaining passengers in Thailand will be flown home on the return flights from Phuket. The final flight from Phuket will fly to Helsinki on 5 December.  The passengers of flights cancelled during last week will be carried from Thailand to Finland and elsewhere in Europe by the beginning of next week. From Friday onward, Finnair's Thailand traffic will operate according to published timetables.

- China Airlines will operate only flight CI-835 from Taipei to Bangkok and the return flight CI-836 from Bangkok to Taipei on 5 December 2008. Other China Airlines flights to/from Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport have been cancelled or rerouted.

- Qatar Airways has said that it hopes to resume its double-daily flight to Bangkok operations from Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday 5 December. Until then special Qatar Airways flight QR1613 will depart U-Tapao International Airport on a daily basis at 1500hrs local time with a scheduled arrival time into Doha International Airport of 1815hrs local time.

- Qantas is to resume services to Bangkok from this Saturday, 6 December. The airline had been operating its scheduled Sydney-Bangkok-London return services via Singapore while Suvarnabhumi was closed. Qantas has operated four relief flights between Phuket and Singapore since Tuesday. In total the airline has carried around 1,200 people out of Thailand. The first Qantas flight, QF2 London-Bangkok-Sydney, is scheduled to return to Bangkok early evening on Saturday. It will be followed soon after by QF1 operating northbound from Sydney.

- Singapore Airlines is planning to resumption flights to and from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport from Friday 5 December 2008. SIA's first flight from Suvarnabhumi will depart for Singapore at 13:05 local time, Friday afternoon. As a consequence, additional relief flights from U-Tapao will cease from Wednesday evening.

On Friday, Singapore Airlines plans three return flights between Singapore and Bangkok, plus one flight from Singapore to Bangkok then onto Tokyo Narita. From Saturday onwards, a three-times-daily return flight will operate, in addition to a flight in each direction between Bangkok and Tokyo Narita.

- SilkAir is also reducing its additional flights between Phuket and Singapore to one per day (on top of the daily schedule of at least four flights), as capacity increases from Bangkok and demand for its relief flights tapers off. These additional flights will continue till Sunday 7 December.

- SAS today resumes its operations to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. The airline now expects to bring home the last stranded passengers in Thailand during the weekend.

During the siege of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, SAS rerouted flights to U-Tapao and Phuket airports in order to get customers out of Thailand. SAS managed to bring over 1,000 passengers home using the alternative airports in Thailand.

The flight from Stockholm to Bangkok, SK975, left Stockholm at 20.20 Thursday evening. The flight will arrive in Bangkok at 12:35 on Friday, 5 December.

Theflight from Copenhagen to Bangkok, SK973, has been postponed to depart Copenhagen 05:55 on Friday. The flight will arrive in Bangkok, 22:30 on the same day Friday, 5 December. The flight has been postponed to avoid congestion at Bangkok airport.

The first scheduled SAS departure from Bangkok to Stockholm, SK976, will operate as scheduled 5 December, with a departure time from Bangkok at 14:25. The first scheduled SAS departure from Bangkok to Copenhagen, SK972, will operate as scheduled on 6 December, with a departure time from Bangkok 00:25.

Passengers originally booked and confirmed on SAS flights from 5 December remain confirmed on their flight. Those passengers do not need to reconfirm or contact SAS. SAS are currently rebooking stranded passengers from cancelled flights onto those flights departing this weekend. Those passengers will be contacted by SAS when seats and flights are confirmed.

- PBair is to resume flights between Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok and Danang in Vietnam on Saturday, 6 December 2008. Flights to all PBair's domestic destinations Lampang (LPT), Nan (NNT) Nakhon Phanom (KOP), Sakon Nakhon (SNO), Roi-Et (ROI) and Buriram (BFV) will resume from Sunday, 7 December 2008. Customers are urged to call PBair to rebook or confirm their tickets.

Once we receive more confirmation of the flights in or out of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang, their dates etc, we will update this page.

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