The first Chinese charter plane organized by Chinese government landed Saturday afternoon at U-Tapao airport, some 180 kilometers from Bangkok to bring back home Chinese tourists stranded in Bangkok due to anti-government protestors' siege of the two Bangkok airports.
The first flight from China Eastern Airlines, a A300 airplane, arrived at about 4:30 p.m. local time (0930GMT) at the small and crowded military airport to board 261 passengers back to Shanghai. It will be followed by four other charter planes, from the China International Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.
A China Eastern Airbus-300 arrives at the Utapao Airport near Pattaya, about 150 km east of Bangkok, capital of Thailand, Nov. 29, 2008. Chinese aviation authorities were sending 5 planes on Saturday to Thailand to bring home the remaining stranded Chinese tourists after the closure of the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. The five planes will take the first batch of some 1,400 stranded Chinese back to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, hopefully to take off on late Saturday.
Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Zhang Jiuhuan, who arrived at the airport to receive the first flight, said that the Chinese government has arranged the second batch of planes to fly to Thailand on Sunday.
At the airport, which the Thai government made a make-shift international air departing port, over 10,000 passengers flooded into the airport since the morning, causing heavy traffic jam on ways from Bangkok towards the airport.
Nearly 100,000 passengers have missed flights since People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protestors besieged and shut down Bangkok's two main airports Suvarnabhumi International Airport and Don Mueang domestic airport on Tuesday. The total number of the affected travelers could hit 300,000 as the two airports remained closed, Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said Saturday.
The total of stranded Chinese, including those from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, was estimated at about 4,000, according to the Chinese Embassy here.
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