Finnair passengers still stranded in Bangkok

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Marko Mäkilä and Mona Nurmi, who became engaged during their holiday in Thailand, arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on Wednesday morning tired but happy.
      The two were staying just 15 minutes away from the airport, but it took them an hour and a half to get there. “We tried four different routes before we could get there”, Mäkilä says. Still they managed to get on what was - for the time being at least - the last Finnair flight out of the Thai capital.
     
Around them at the airport in Bangkok were thousands of demonstrators wearing yellow shirts, who chose which cars to let through their makeshift road block.
      Nurmi’s Thai mother Navaphon Komulainen quickly removed her red shirt.
      “Fortunately, I had a black patterned shirt on underneath, which is politically neutral. It was not a good idea to wear either red or yellow”, Komulainen said.
      The group from Turku spoke of their experience with relief, but while they were in Bangkok, they were frightened.
      “The girls were quite hysterical”, Mäkilä said.
      His fiancé told him to keep his head inside the car. “Everyone had wooden clubs in their hands.”
      What was most frightening was the huge number of demonstrators. “It looked like they were building some kind of camp outside the airport”, Mäkilä said.
     
Finnair normally has 13 flights to Bankgok each week. Both of Wednesday’s scheduled flights were cancelled because of the chaotic situation at the destination, and Finnair announced later that it would not be flying there on Thursday either.
      About 400 seats had been booked for the two flights. Finnair informed the passengers by telephone or text message, and sent those who had arrived at the airport back home. Some transit passengers from other European countries were stuck in Helsinki.
      The cancellation of flights to Bangkok means that there are no Finnair planes there to bring home the growing number of passengers waiting in the Thai capital for a flight back to Finland. Finnair has not had any planes in Bangkok for a while, and passengers have not yet been put on flights by other airlines.
      No Finns were staying at the airport itself on Wednesday any more.
      “Our ground staff have also left the airport”, said Finnair sales chief Ville Ahokas by phone from Bangkok.
      The airline tried to reach all of its waiting passengers, and to arrange accommodation for them. “Our customers are taking a very calm view of the situation”, Ahokas said.
     
Tour operators are not worried about the unrest in Bangkok. They are looking closely at the situation, and no decisions have been made about flights to Bangkok in the coming days.
      “At the moment, this is primarily a logistical problem - that is, how to get the customers there and how to get them out”, said Tom Selänniemi, deputy CEO of Sun Tours.
     
Finnair is flying normally to Phuket in the south of Thailand.
      The airline has considered the possibility of flying the passengers stuck in Bangkok to Finland on the Phuket flights.
      However, Finnair spokesman Taneli Hassinen notes that all of the leisure flights to and from Phuket are fully booked. Also, Phuket is a two-hour flight away from Bangkok, and under the current circumstances, this means that passengers would have to be ferried there by bus or train.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair Bangkok flight returns to Helsinki as nearly 400 Finns remain stuck in Thailand (26.11.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat