BANGKOK, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- A passenger flight from Thailand's flagship air
carrier Thai Airways International (THAI) is set to land at Bangkok's
Suvarnabhumi International Airport at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday (0700 GMT) as
anti-government protesters cease one-week occupation of the airport.
This will be the first passenger plane to land at the airport as a start of
service resumption after a one-week shutdown since it was sieged by the People's
Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters last Tuesday.
A Boeing 747 plane, flight number TG2109 departing from the southern
tourist island of Phuket will take 375 passengers, many of them tourists who had
been stranded there for days because of the Bangkok airport shutdown, back to
the capital.
Serirat Prasutanond, Acting President of the Airports of Thailand Plc
(AOT), the body overseeing major airports across Thailand, said Wednesday that
commercial flights taking off and landing at the Suvarnabhumi International
Airport may be resumed at noon on Friday at the earliest.
The full operation will be resumed in another week after that but no more
than two weeks.
AOT officials started checking all systems of the Suvarnabhumi Airport at
10 a.m. (0300 GMT) Wednesday after the PAD officially handed it over.
The PAD, which led thousands of protesters to hold continuous mass rallies
since May in central Bangkok in attempts to topple the government led by Premier
Somchai Wongsawat, on Tuesday announced to cease its rallies at and occupation
of the Government House since Aug. 26 and the Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang
airports since Nov. 25 from Wednesday, following a Constitution Court verdict on
Tuesday to disband the Somchai-headed ruling People Power Party on electoral
fraud charges.
The verdict has effectively brought down the Somchai government, which the
PAD called a proxy administration of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
¡¡ BANGKOK, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of Thailand's anti-government group
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) announced on Tuesday evening that it will
end its mass rallies after the government collapsed upon a court ruling that
disbanded the ruling People Power Party (PPP).
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BANGKOK, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's anti-government
group People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Tuesday agreed with airport
authorities to open the Suvarnabhumi International Airport for incoming
flights.
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