Suvarnhaphumi starting to reopen!

[Mentors]

Concern mounts at Thai airport security lapses

 

BANGKOK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - As Thai authorities race to get Suvarnabhumi airport ready for full international operations, airline officials and diplomats fear major security concerns are being overlooked.

 

They say the ease with which a rag-tag group of anti-government protesters took over Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports last week exposed fundamental security problems that need to be addressed.

But with the tourist-dependent Thai economy haemorrhaging revenue as a result of the airport closures, stakeholders feel they are being pressured into restarting operations.

 

On Thursday, Bangkok-based ambassadors of some of Thailand's most important allies and trading partners issued a joint statement saying they were "seriously concerned" at the vulnerability to outside assaults of Suvarnabhumi and the mostly domestic Don Muang airports.

 

"(We) urge the government of Thailand to take all necessary measures to improve the protection and security of all Thai airports," said the statement, signed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States.

Airline representatives in Thailand contacted by Reuters were highly critical of the response to the airport blockades, how the emergency was dealt with and efforts to restart operations.

None was willing to be identified. "We have to work here," said one.

"We are under enormous pressure to open -- from the airport authorities, from stuck passengers, from shareholders, from the tourist industry ...," said one airline official.

"But our genuine security concerns are being ignored."

 

Chief among those concerns are the security lapses that allowed a supposedly state-of-the-art, $4 billion airport, opened just two years ago, to be overrun in minutes by a few hundred protesters, even if some were armed with clubs and metal rods.

 

Airport security initially held back the protesters a few hundred metres (yards) from the terminal, but when pressed, they melted away.

 

Suvarnabhumi is a key regional hub handling hundreds of flights a day and over 150,000 passengers. Within minutes the airport was overrun and passengers watched -- some shocked, some initially bemused -- as the yellow-clad protesters coursed through the terminal.

"What if they were armed terrorists? What if this was India?" one airline official asked, referring to the attacks a day later by just 10 Islamic gunmen in Mumbai that killed 171 people.

 

Some Thailand watchers justified the lack of response as being typical of the country's delicate domestic political situation. The authorities couldn't, or wouldn't, use force against the protesters because of their perceived support from parts of the royal family.

 

Airport general manager Serirat Prasutanond, touring Suvarnabhumi on Wednesday after the protesters finally abandoned their siege, told Reuters: "They did no damage. They love Thailand."

But such apparently flippant dismissals of security lapses only enrage those who insist on more professionalism.

 

"It is a joke," said one Singapore-based industry consultant. "If that happened here or in Kuala Lumpur, the protesters would have been shot. Whoever was responsible for security, they would have been shot next."

 

Airports of Thailand AOT.BK officials say Suvarnabhumi will be fully operational by Friday afternoon after the massive, sprawling facility has been thoroughly "sanitised" by security experts.

But operators say it will take a lot more to convince them that security is as good as it should be.

 

"In the next few weeks we (foreign operators) are going to be getting together and making a stand," one industry insider said. "Things absolutely have to change."

 

"This situation cannot go on. If a major event takes place now, we will never be able to say we didn't see it coming, that we couldn't prepare." (Editing by Alan Raybould)

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSSP35217120081204?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

 

[Hugh_Hoy]

This just from my inbox:

 

[color:purple]Singapore Airlines to resume flights to and from Suvarnabhumi Airport

 

Singapore Airlines plans the resumption of flights to and from Bangkokâ??s Suvarnabhumi Airport from Friday 5 December 2008.Cheers,

SD

 

Now that two pages of crap was news we needed. We know where to find the OAG.

 

HH

 

[Neon Ninja]

Concern mounts at Thai airport security lapses

 

They say the ease with which a rag-tag group of anti-government protesters took over Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports last week exposed fundamental security problems that need to be addressed.

 

I suspect that the airports could be as secure as Fort Knox it would not have mattered.

As long as those conducting airport security were unwilling to fire upon the protesters, it did not matter how much security they had, or how many guards were there.

 

I'm not taking any sides here. Just pointing the flaw in their logic of addressing their supposed "security problems".

 

Had it been some sort of aggressor force like in India, I suspect that the outcome would have been different.

 

-=/NN

[Flashermac]

They hardly had to shoot them to stop them. Non-lethal weapons should be available ... but not the exploding kind used by the police!

 

 

[cavanami]

How did the *** thousands *** of protesters get to the airport? they didn't walk there! They didn't all come in taxis! I suspect that many came by bus, which does not go directly to the terminal, so there must have been a pile of protesters at the airport's bus terminal, which is *** NOT *** a normal occurrence.

 

Soooo, why didn't the security people take notice of this strange influx???

[Flashermac]

From the photos, it looked like a convoy! One PAD fella said that people with cars were told to drive them to Govmt House. Then they picked up 4 more demonstators. That meant 5 per car, and the PAD leaders wanted to get 1,000 cars going. Doubt if they got that many, but more PAD folks were allowed to join those at the airports without any attempt to stop them.

 

Sort of looks like 1) the police had already got burnt and 2) the military wasn't about to stick their neck out again. Plus the government ran away to Chiang Mai! Result ... it was do whatever you feel like time for PAD and the UDD.

 

 

 

 

[Flashermac]

Bangkok Post

5 Dec 2008

 

 

Hoping, hopelessly

 

 

By Atiya Achakulwisut

 

 

The "fury" has begun to subside now that people have been free to fly again. The "sound," however, is getting louder for the coalition to give a chance to the other major party to form a government for a change.

 

Or there is the possibility that the acting prime minister could dissolve the House of Representatives altogether and start anew (if that is still possible).

 

The "sound" is fast becoming a panic cry of terror after the familiar face of Public Health Minister Chalerm Yubamrung popped up as a top candidate to be the next prime minister of Thailand.

 

Should we seize the opportunity to fly while we still can and become airborne right away? What chance does Thailand have under the double acts of maverick Mr Chalerm and the reckless People's Alliance for Democracy?

 

In all honesty, I can't think of what high-impact move the PAD can come up with next that will top its ruinous siege of the two Bangkok airports. And my brain threatens to shut down every time I try to think of other high-profile targets that will cause as much disturbance to public life as possible. As it also seems to freeze over whenever I think up the phrase... Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung.

 

The brain probably knows better than the heart, which has an unhealthy habit of storing up too much hope.

 

The brain is simply preparing itself for life here in the future, when having a thought or an ability to think would actually be superfluous.

 

Now while we have a little bit of a truce and a few grey cells still functioning, let's make some use of them.

 

Let's try to see if the two wishes of the business community and prominent people have a chance of coming true so that we may have a peaceful Christmas and possibly a joyful cross-over to the New Year.

 

Let's consider the possibility of a Democrat-led government first.

 

Although this seems to be an alternative favoured by such muscular players as the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking comprising the Board of Trade of Thailand, Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Bankers' Association, it's at best a long shot. Mathematically speaking, the Democrats' numbers do not add up even if they can sway all the coalition parties except the now-defunct People Power to join hands. The only road to Government House for the Democrat party is through defection and we can safely assume that no defection is possible without an offer that is tempting enough. For now, the Democrats do not seem to have anything irresistible.

 

How about the much-hoped-for House dissolution? This has always been an available card in the PPP's hands. That it didn't choose to play it even when it would have benefited the party most - which would have been before the dissolution verdict came out so that they could avoid some of the harshest effects of the punishment - can only mean the party never intended to play it unless it absolutely had to.

 

So far, the PPP is sticking to the same, exportable plot line as the exiled convict Thaksin Shinawatra - that of democracy being wronged. For that line to be valid, the party must remain in power, if only to differentiate it from the opponent, which must always be outside of the power and thus undemocratic.

 

Even though the government party is expected to return en masse to parliament if a new election is called, there will inevitably be a vacuum which can last a few months after the House is dissolved. In politics, a month can be an eternity, especially when you are not in full control of the state apparatus.

 

So, in order to continue its portrayal of itself as the victim, the ruling party would gain more by proposing candidates for the premiership who have less appeal in the eyes of the public, especially its detractors among the urban middle-class.

 

The more the party seems to be rejected, the more victimised it would become in the eyes of the "democracy-loving" communities both in and outside of the country.

 

While I have hope in my heart that the ruling party and its coalition will come to their senses and realise they have no one on the list who qualifies to serve as PM during this time of crisis, and opt to dissolve the House and prepare a better line-up for administrative posts should they get elected again, I am afraid the brain might be right.

 

And I am very afraid for its functioning in the near future.

 

 

[Torneyboy]

What a crazy place.

[drogon]

AFP: 550 international flights today

[Mentors]

Suvarnabhumi Airport resumes full service

 

Suvarnabhumi International Airport officially resumed full service again at 11am on Friday after thousands of anti-government protesters ended their weeklong siege at the airport on Wednesday.

 

Large number of passengers lined up at check-in counters since 6am, altogether in a festive atmosphere.

 

Traditionally-clad dancers and rural kathin players beating gongs and drums greeted departing passengers with apologies from the people of Thailand, in elegant processions organised by the Ministry of Culture.

 

The first three flights were Thai Airways International, Thai Air Asia, and Bangkok Airways, while varied international airlines were to gradually resume their flights later in the day, with it being expected that a total of more than 100 flights would operate Friday.

 

Acting Transport Minister Santi Prompat had inspected the readiness of the airport as officials from many agencies including the Department of Civil Aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Air Transport Association and the Airport Operation Committee who together observed the airport in operation on Friday morning to ensure passenger safety and security.

 

Customs Department director general Uthit Thammawathin said the department - and Thailand --had suffered the loss of revenue from taxes and duties amounting to hundreds of million baht as many cargo shipments were stranded because of the closure of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.

 

The director-general said he has instructed the customs officials to strictly inspect the cargo as the smugglers may take this opportunity to smuggle or transfer illegal goods during the time the officials tried to clear the stranded cargo.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/12/05/headlines/headlines_30090298.php