Programs: CO Plat; GF Gold; LH Refugee; Marriott Plat.
Posts: 594
Scheduled to fly to BKK tonight with LH out of FRA. No info yet if they reroute the flight but I guess I will depart on-time tonight and flight crew will made the decission where to land over India
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thousands of anti-government protesters partially shut down Bangkok International airport Tuesday.
All departing flights were canceled after the protesters broke into the passenger terminal, Serirat Prasutanond, the director of Suvarnabhumi airport, said. There are also demonstrators sitting on the road in front of the terminal, video of the protest showed. [...]
BANGKOK — Anti-government protesters swarmed into Bangkok’s main international airport late Tuesday, prompting officials to cancel all departing flights and bringing Thailand’s political stalemate to a crisis point.
As the protesters occupied the highway to the airport on the outskirts of the city, traffic to the airport slowed to a trickle. Separately, elsewhere in Bangkok, a group of demonstrators fired handguns and beat government supporters with metal rods in fierce clashes, injuring six people, according to video footage shown on Thai television. City emergency services officials put the number higher, saying at least 11 people were hurt, according to Reuters. [...]
My brother was about 90 minutes out from BKK (coming from NRT) when he was diverted to HKG. Not a bad adventure (it's the front end of a vacation for him) but he will - of course - miss his connection to Phuket adding to an already long journey.
Hope this doesn't affect my Dec trip too much. Otherwise, I'll be calling home saying "...I'm stuck in Phuket. I know, how horrible is that, right?"
Despite the reports of diversions to HKG, the Channel NewsAsia was reporting diverstions to Phuket (ding, ding, ding -- we have a winner!) and Chiang Mi (maybe for flights that were closer or more regional, etc.) -- so maybe you'll just miss your connection in BKK and so straight to Phuket - and even better if you could get stuck. Good luck with that!
At BKK and other sites. Still looking very not pretty.
Quote:
A blast at Bangkok's international airport and grenade attacks elsewhere in the city wounded at least seven people on Wednesday, as lawlessness spread amid anti-government protests, officials said.
The explosion at Suvarnabhumi Airport happened a day after demonstrators stormed the airport, forcing it to close down and stranding thousands of passengers.
"At least two people were wounded by a bomb blast at Suvarnabhumi this morning," Petpong Kamchornkitkarn, an emergency medical services official, told AFP.
Two local television stations said a grenade was fired at protesters and that three people were wounded.
Bangkok's international airport will remain closed today [Nov 26] after anti-government protesters seized control of the facility, an air traffic control official said.
Staff had been asked to leave the control tower at Suvarnabhumi Airport because of the closure, said Puttawan Noirod, a spokeswoman for Aeronautical Radio of Thailand, which controls air traffic across the country.
"First Airports of Thailand told us that the airport would be closed until midday but then they informed us that the airport will not operate the rest of the day,'' said Puttawan.
Looks like BKK will remain closed for another day. Total disaster...
(SIN comes to BKK)
