December 01, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 2, 1429

BANGKOK, Nov 30: Foreign governments were on Sunday racing to evacuate tens of thousands of visitors stranded in Thailand after anti-government protesters occupied Bangkok’s airports, throwing travel plans into chaos.

About 30,000 travellers have missed their flights each day since demonstrations forced the closure of the Thai capital’s main Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday and the domestic hub Don Mueang two days later.

With protesters vowing to stay at Suvarnabhumi until Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat resigns, airlines and charter jets have begun picking up travellers from the one-runway U-Tapao naval base 190 kilometres from Bangkok.

China had arranged for seven charter flights to retrieve its stranded nationals, believed to number 2,000-3,000 people, by Saturday and had further flights planned for Sunday, Xinhua news agency said.

The first of the flights bringing home Chinese citizens arrived in Shanghai early on Sunday, to the relief of worried families.

“My family were deeply concerned about my daughter’s safety after learning the Thailand airport was closed,” Xinhua quoted one man, named as Zhou, whose daughter had been stranded in Bangkok as saying.

“We felt a great relief that she could take the charter flight and finally got back safe.”

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has ordered her foreign department to account for hundreds of Filipinos among those stranded in the Thai capital and asked that they be brought home to Manila from the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his government was becoming increasingly frustrated by Thai authorities’ inability to help evacuate tourists caught up in the demonstrations which have paralysed air traffic.

He said Canberra had urged Thai airlines and tourism authorities to provide extra flights out and accommodation for the hundreds of luckless Australian visitors, but noted that “we can’t rely upon... that presenting a conclusion”.

Australian airline Qantas would provide extra flights to Thailand, “but that is dependent upon getting access to the airports and getting flights in,” Smith told national television on Sunday.

The New Zealand government said that was working with foreign airlines and the Australian governnment in an attempt to get New Zealanders out of Bangkok as soon as possible.

There are 195 New Zealanders caught in Bangkok but not all want to go home, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.

“Some are heading the other way, not all are literally trapped there, and some have made arrangements to go elsewhere,” McCully said.

Japan’s two major airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said on Sunday they are organising flights from the U-Tapao air base to bring back tourists stranded by mass protests.

Other carriers which have confirmed they will send flights to U-Tapao include Thai Airways, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore-based Jetstar Asia, EVA Airways of Taiwan, and Malaysia-based carrier AirAsia.

China Airlines in Taiwan, AirAsia and Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, are flying to Chiang Mai to pick up stranded passengers.

Malaysia Airlines said three flights would be sent to Thailand Sunday to rescue travellers and that U-Tapao would be the airline’s alternative airport until the situation returned to normal.

Budget carrier AirAsia said it would send its third rescue flight Sunday to

U-Tapao airport and the plane would

return the same evening, with

priority given to those passengers who had been stranded in Bangkok the longest.

South Korean carriers sent special flights on Thursday to bring out passengers from the base.Meanwhile Spain will reportedly send three planes, two military aircraft and a chartered plane to Thailand to bring back some 300 of its citizens.

Massive traffic jams have already built up outside the airstrip, which was used as a base for US troops during the Vietnam War and can only handle about 40 flights a day compared with the near-new Suvarnabhumi’s daily traffic of 700.—AFP